The duchess of Trajetto

*

THE

DUCHESS OF TRAJETTO.

THE AUTHOR OF "MARY POWELL.

Giulia Gonzaga, che, dovunque il piedc
Volge, e dovunque i sereni occhi gira,
Xon pur ogn' altra di belta le cede,
Ma, come scesa dal ciel, Dea l'aniinira.

ARIOsTO.

LONDON :
ARTHUR HALL & CO., 26, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1863.

MS

16an stack

LONDON :
BRADRVRY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

clue

CONTEXTS.

CHAP.

PAGE

r.

THE DUCHESS IN DANGER

1

ii.

THE DUCHESS IN SAFETV ....

15

in.

THE DUCHESS'S STORV ....

34

IV.

MOORISH SLAVES

48

v.

THE CARDINAL AND THE JEW

62

VI.

THE SORROWS OF THE JEW

74

VII.

SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO.

86

VIII.

THE DUCHESS AND THE PAINTER

99

IX.

DAWN OF A PURE LIGHT

115

X.

VITTORIA DI COLONNA ....

129

XI.

VALDES AND OCHINO ....

144

XII.

GOING TO LAW ......

159

XIII.

THE CARDINAL TEMPTED

172

915

CONTENTS.

CHAP.

XIV. WHAT BEFEL BARBAROSSA

XV. MORE ABOUT THE CARDINAL .

XVI. THE DUCHESS AND THE MARCHIONESS

XVII. ISCHIA

XVIII. A BETTER LIFE ....

XIX. REST AND PEACE ....

APPENDIX

PAGE

187
197
221
233
247
261
275

THE

DUCHESS OP TBAJETTO,

CHAPTER I.

THE DUCHESS IX DANGER.

It was night — the Duchess was in bed. Her
hand shaded her wakeful eyes from the light
of a silver lamp fed with perfumed oil, which
shone only on what was calculated to please
the taste, minister to the luxury, and display
the wealth of the owner. Rare paintings of
Scriptural and mythological subjects decorated
the walls, the ceiling was richly moulded and
gilt, the floor of polished marble was only
partially covered with fine matting, a few
choice statuettes and vases occupied brackets
and niches : the massive toilette service and

The Duchejs of Trajetto.

mirror-frame of precious metal were shaded
by some texture of light silvery tissue ; while
half-opeu cabinets and caskets revealed price-
less jewels and fragrant perfumes. On a
velvet cushion lay an illuminated missal and
a rosary.

Here was every outward appliance, one might
think, to make a favourite of fortune happy ;
but the good and honest face of the Duchess,
which spoke her every thought, did not look
so. The night was sultry ; she had tried
to sleep, but could not ; and now she was
feverishly endeavouring to think of something
pleasant, without success.

The deep stone windows of her apartment,
which were open, commanded a small garden
sleeping in the moonlight, where terraces were
cut on a declivity; and where Cupid and
Psyche, Diana with her hounds, and Apollo
with his bow, gleamed white among orange,
lemon, and myrtle. This little pleasaunce was

The Buchefs in Danger.

shut in within the walls of a strong baronial
castle ; and beyond them lay the little town of
Fondi, consisting of a single street built on the
Appian Way. Beyond it, a lake, a forest, a
marsh, stretching down to the blue brimming
Mediterranean. The little town seemed steeped
in sleep : the silence was intense.

All at once, a low, regular sound jarred on
the Duchess's quickened ear.

" That's a very unaccountable noise," thought
she to herself. " I wonder what it is. People
are about, who ou^ht to be in their beds. If
it continues, I shall ring up the Mother-of-the-
maids. Xow it has stopped. I wish I were
not so wakeful — how tiresome it is !

" What could induce Isabella to write me
that disagreeable letter ? I fancy the Prince
of Sulmona had a hand in it. It is very hard,
after the Pope's substantiating my rights as he
has done, and bringing me through with a
hicrh hand, that I should be assailed in a fresh

The Du chefs of Trajetto.

quarter. How sorry Rodomonte would have
been ! Poor fellow, he loved us both so dearly !
And if ever a step-mother did her duty by a
step-daughter, I did mine by Isabella, But
there was too little difference in our ages.
She presumed on my forbearance, and tried to
domineer over me. I dare say many people
fancy the life of a rich young widow must
needs be very happy. Some were even stupid
enough to think my dear Duke and I could
not be as happy as we seemed. Oh, yes, we
were '. — though he was forty and I but thirteen.
" Supposing I had been over-persuaded to
have Ippolito, how different would have been
the story of our lives ! Happier for him,
possibly, but he may be very well content to
be a cardinal. At the same time I have
somehow suspected that if ever any one
really valued me for myself, he did. They all
flatter too much. A flattered person is the
tool of the flatterer. It hurts one's mind

The Duchefs in Danger. 5

" That noise again ! Can it be Caterina
snoring ? She says she never does : just as if
she could hear herself ! Whatever it is, I'll
have it inquired into. Caterina ! Caterina !
Cynthia! Cynthia!"

At the sound of the Duchess's voice, two of
her attendants came running in from the ante-
chamber. One of them was a withered old
woman with a very benevolent face and thin
grey hair fastened at the top of her head in
a little knot about as big as an egg, with a
bodkin : the other a Moorish girl, with large,
startled, lustrous eyes, and symmetrical as one
of Calypso's nymphs moulded in bronze. She
was in a single white garment, but had caught
up a striped goat's hair haik, which by day
formed the upper part of her attire.

"Did Leila call?" "What will your Vos-
signoria?"

" I called because I could bear your snoring
no longer, Caterina."

The Duchefs of Trajetto.

" I snore ? " repeated Caterina, with a look of
injured innocence. " Vossignoria must surely
be mistaken ; for I was hung wide awake, with
Cynthia sleeping beside me, as quiet as a lamb."

" You were dreaming that you were awake,"
said the Duchess. " I have not once closed my
eyes, nor has it been possible — Hark ! there
is the noise again ! " cried she, excitedly.
" What on earth can it be ? "

They remained transfixed, .with suspended
breath, in various attitudes of surprise and
affright ; each of them intently listening.

" I hear nothing. Eccellenza," began Caterina.

" There ! there ! " exclaimed the Duchess.

Cynthia suddenly sprang to one of the open
windows, and looked out — then, clapped her
hands to her head, and gave an unearthly yell.

" What is it 1 " cried Caterina, hastening
towards her, and peering forth into the dark-
ness. Then, shrieking, she exclaimed, — "The
pirates are upon us ! "

The Duchefs in Banger.

"Bafeo dal letto"* — The Duchess sprang
from her bed, and took one hasty glance from
the window. She could discern a string of
turbaned figures with gleaming scimitars
swarming up the walls, and leaping down on
the inner side.

'■ We are undone ! " exclaimed she, despe-
rately. " Caterina ! arouse the men ! Cynthia,
help me to dress."

Wild sounds were already heard on every
side, both in the town and the castle — alarm-
bells ringing, hoarse war-cries, piercing screams
— Hayraddin Barbarossa was upon them I

What a plunder ! There was the town, to

* "Come lupi famelici entrarono in Fondi que' barbari,
destandovi tra gli ululati degli abitanti un tumulto indici-
bile. 11 fremito de' ribaldi assalitori, le grida degli assaliti
che assordavano 1' aria, ruppero a Giulia il sonno, e mentre
palpitando e incerta iva pensando qual potesse essere la
cagione di tanto rumore, eccole i pallidi famiglieri col trLsto
anminzio che i Turchi scorrevano 1" occupata citta, e die
non vi era tempo a perdere se bramava salvarsi dalle
indegne loro mani. Balzo dal letto," &c, &c. — Ieeneo
Aefo, Memorie di trc Principesse, &c.

The Duchefs of Trajetto.

begin with ; then, there was the castle ; and
within the castle, the most beautiful and
beloved lady in all Italy ! the friend and
favourite of popes and princes ; a princess
herself, enormously rich ! What a ransom !

But no ransom was the object of Hayraddin
Barbarossa, the scourge of the seas. He meant
to carry her away captive to Solyman the
Magnificent, Emperor of the Turks. With
this purpose, and no less, had Hayraddin been
hovering off the coast with a hundred galleys
and two thousand Turks on board,* terrifying

* Piena 1' Italia e 1' Europa fosse di quanto iva spargendo
la fama intorno le singolare bellezze di Giulia ; erane passato
anche il grido ai molli regni dell' Asia. Solimano II.,
Imperadore de' Turchi, non ignorava quanto ella fosse
avvenente ; onde giacche avea guerra coll' Imperador
Carlo Y., fornito Ariadene Barbarossa di cento galere, con
ciu potesse trascoiTere i mari nostri, e battere le coste de
paesi Cbristiani, gl' ingiunse che tra le spoglie piu rieche,
onde carico lo attendeva, dovesse aver luogo la vagha Signora
di Fondi. Fece plauso al comando il baldanzoso corsaro,
che, avido di riportar gloria, al mare affidosi pien di si
audace pensiero," &c. — Idem.

The Duchejs in Danger

the Neapolitans out of their wits at the very
thought of his red beard and red flag — he, who
avowed himself " the friend of the sea, and the
foe of all who sailed upon it " — whose very
name was a word of fear from the Straits of
Gibraltar to the Dardanelles ! *

•• They will be upon us directly, Signora/'
said her trembling, grey-haired seneschal, who
had hastened to her at the first alarm. " Lose
no time in escaping. The pirates will never
content themselves with the town — rely on it,
you are their object. We will lower you from
the window — you must then cross the draw-
bridge, and pass through the gallery cut
in the rock. It will bring you out on the
hill-side, where Tiberio shall join you with

horses — "

" Come, then, Caterina — '

"Alas, Madama, I am too old for jumping

out of windows— I will remain to secrete the
* Robertson's "Charles the Fifth."'

io The Duche/s cf Trajetto.

jewels, and look after the maids. We will lock
ourselves in the cellars."

" Come then, Cynthia. Be quick."

Cynthia, who was wrapping herself in her
haik, looked unwilling, and said :

" May I not remain with Caterina, Leila ?"'

" Certainly not. Jump out of window this
instant, and then you can help me down."

The Duchess accelerated her by a slight
push, on which she sprang lightly as a chamois
to the ground, which was not far below ; and
the Duchess, seeing she came to no harm,
called on the saints, and did the same. Caterina
lowered them a lamp, which they covered, and
soon they were in the rocky passage, while the
Turks in the distance were howling like hungry
wolves or mad dogs*

" How cold it is ! " complained the Duchess,
shivering and drawing closer the richly furred
velvet mantle in which she was enveloped.

* "Lupi famelici,'" " colla ral/bia d' affamati cani."

The Duchefs in Danger. 1 1

"And you gave me no stockings, Cynthia,
only slippers. How could you be so
foolish 1 "

" You must not mind that, Leila, since you
are safe," said Cynthia, bluntly. " Think what
horrors are going on in the town. Holy prophet !
it reminds me of the night when my parents
fled from the Spaniards ! "

" Cynthia, it is very wicked of you to use
those heathenish imprecations, now that I have
taken the trouble to have you baptised. Your
prophet was not holy, nor a prophet at all, but
a very bad man, as I have told you several
times, and you must not be so benighted any
more."

Cynthia's eyes flashed fire, but she held her
peace.

'•'If you call any one holy," continued the
Duchess, " it should be the blessed Virgin and
holy saints. You ought to consider it a great
mercy that you have been led to the service of

12

The Duchefs of Trajetto.

a Christian mistress who cares for your soul.
Don't you feel this ? "

" No," said Cynthia, stoutly ; " I do not feel
grateful that I was torn from my home and
country, and that my father was cut down on
his own doorstep, and my mother dragged
along the ground by the hair of her head.
Could you feel grateful, Leila % "

" Xot for those things, certainly ; but misfor-
tunes are often blessings in disguise, and the
Moors are very wicked people, and — "

" They are doing those very things, just
now, to your people," said Cynthia, expres-
sively, and stretching out her arm towards the
town.

" Ah ! Heaven forbid ! " said the Duchess.

" Heaven does not forbid, though," said
Cynthia, sorrowfully, " and I cannot think why
Heaven only looks on."

" Cynthia ! " cried the Duchess, suddenly
stopping short, and fixing a piercing look

The D it chefs in Banger. 13

on her, " did you bring these people on
us?"

" What people, Leila ? "

" These pirates ! — these Moots ! "

" Take the lamp ! " cried Cynthia, thrusting
it into her hand, and stamping passionately.
" Kill me if you will, since you can suspect me S
Here's a dagger — I brought it to defend you
and myself'

"Nay, but I do not want to suspect you.
Put up your dagger, foolish girl. Who talks
about killing ? " said the Duchess, shrinking
from the gleaming steel. "Speak but the
word and I will believe you ; only, as they
are countrymen of yours, and as you so hate
the Christians, the thought just crossed
me."

" 1*11 never speak the word," said Cynthia,
stubbornly. "You may kill me if you will,
but I'll never say ! "

And with dilated nostrils, quivering lips, and

14 The Dachefs of Frajetto.

flaming eyes, she strode on before her mistress.
It was not a time or place for the Duchess
to take notice of it — to a woman with a

The Duchefs in Safety.

CHAPTER II.

THE DUCHESS IN SAFETY.

Emerging from the gallery, the Duchess
uttered a faint cry, and would have shrunk
back again on seeing some dark figures
stealthily approaching ; but they proved to be
only two of her own servants, each with a
led horse, on which she and Cynthia were
speedily mounted, and on their way to Valle-
corsa.

Meantime a desperate conflict was raging
in the town and castle, led on by the fiery
Barbarossa himself, his lieutenant Dragut, and
the renegade Sinan, the most relentless of his
corsairs. Again and again resounds the cry
- Where is the Duchess, ye Christian clogs ? " —
" Out of your reach ! :' they shout back ; and
a volley of stones descends from the battle-

1 6 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

ments. Defence is vain ; the gates are forced
in, the assailants pour through the rooms, and,
disappointed of their prey, hack and spoil the
rich furniture, and carry off what comes ready
to hand. Faithful retainers are cut down ;
others have their hands tied and are carried off
to be sold into slavery ; among them, a youth
called Tebaldo Adimari, the pride and hope
of Fondi.

Day was breaking when the corsairs, laden
with booty, drew off from the town in good
order and formidable numbers, leaving very
few of their party behind them. The little
town was sick and gasping. Here and there
were low wails and continuous sobbings in-
doors. Here and there a hollow groan from
some ditch. Here and there a broken
scimitar, an unrolled turban, a pool of blood.
Monks now began to steal forth in couples
from the Dominican convent in which St.
Thomas Aquinas had taught theology. They

The Duchefs in Safety. 17

went to shrive the dying, bury the dead, and
console the bereaved. A Jewish physician,
with a couple of Hebrew servants, was also
engaged in offices of benevolence ; causing
some to be carefully removed ; binding up
the wounds of others on the spot. The peril
of the Duchess — though she escaped unscathed
— caused great commiseration and excitement
at the time. The death and captivity of the
nobodies elicited a slight shudder or a shrug,
and was passed over.

Cautiously the withered face of the Mother-
of-the-maids peered forth from the cellar-door
when all was quiet ; and fearfully issued forth
the train of scared, bewildered females who
had taken shelter under her wing. They were
relieved to find themselves alive and safe ; but
lamentations soon succeeded gratulations.
Isaura's betrothed had been carried away
captive ; Tonina's father lay stark and stiff.
As for the cameriera, she was weeping herself

iS The Buchefs of Trajetto.

blind to find the Duchess's room ransacked,
the mirror smashed, the gowns tossed like
hay, the pictures stabbed, and many of the
properties made booty of. She smote her
breast and wrong her hands to that degree
that it was dreadful to see her.

The news of the attack reaching Eome,
Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, who was much
more of a warrior than a churchman, hastened
to the rescue with a troop of horse.

Meanwhile, a messenger from Vallecorsa
brought a billet from the Duchess.

" Are the wretches gone ? Have they done
much harm ? I have nothing to put on. Is
anybody hurt ? I suppose I may come
back ? "'

As everybody was at sixes and sevens
without the Duchess, a council was held, the
Dominican prior was consulted, evidence was
heard, and it was finally reported that the
Pavnims had made off, via Itri, and put to sea.

The Due kefs in Safety

On this, back came the Duchess, in very
miscellaneous toilette ; and she was met by a
general turn-out of the people of Fondi — a
rough, wild-looking set at their best, poor
creatures ! furnishing more than their due
quota, then as now, to the briganti. In the
midst were two biers, supporting the corpses
of men who had been slain in the late attack,
and borne by monks, while the populace con-
fusedly pressed around them, beating their
breasts, tearing then hair, and filling the air
with their lamentations. These were redoubled
at sight of the Duchess, whose tender heart
melted at the scene. The sight of their liege-
lady in tears redoubled their woe ; they closed
round her, kissing her dress, hands, and feet,
recounting their losses, and each doing his
possible to prove himself more in want of
solace than the rest. She condoled with all,
promised monetary restitution to the living
and masses for the dead ; and, to crown all,

20 <The Duchefs of Trajetto.

proceeded straight to church to give thanks for
her deliverance and pray for the souls of the
slain. Then she re-entered her castle in a
chastened frame of mind.

" Caterina," said she to her old nurse, " how
little we know what a few hours may bring
forth ! It seems an age since yesterday. What
a turn it gave me when Cynthia first shrieked
out ! By the way, do you think she was really
frightened \ "

" Really frightened, Eccellenza % "

" Yes. Do you not think it possible she
might be glad the Moors were landing and
might carry her off?"

" Barbarossa, Signora ? "

" Well, I know it was Barbarossa ; but still
he was her own countryman, and — "

" I do not think she would acknowledge
Barbarossa for a countryman, Illustrissima. She
claims descent from the old Moors of Grenada
— from the Abencerrages."

The Buchefs in Safety. 21

" Oh, yes, she may claim descent, and call
herself a princess and all that. They all do, I
believe. You should have seen her look when
I told her Mahound was a false prophet — "

•• She's very touchy about that, I well know,"
said Caterina.

- Touchy ? Why, I believe she prays to him
still — swears by him at any rate. There is no
sounding the depths of these Paynims."

'•I believe you would find great love for
yourself in the depths of Cynthia's heart, —
poor, darkened young thing — if you could
sound it, Signora."

u Ah, but unfortunately, I cannot ; and she
behaved very improperly to me in the cavern."

" You shock me, Illustrissima ! "'

■ She thrust the lamp into my hand, saying :
' Hold the light ! ' and stamped ! "

'• Inconceivable ! Abominable \ n ejaculated
Caterina. (i What could she have been think-
ing of ? "

22

The Buchefs of Trajetto.

" And she brandished a dagger ! Not to kill
me, but telling me to kill her. So uncalled
for ! "

" I fear I must give her up," said Caterina,
" though Perez lent her the dagger to defend
you, and she has returned it. I was beginning
to grow fond of her. She must be corrected,
Sign or a."

"Well, truly, I think she must. Let me
speak to her first. I dare say she is as hard as
a stone. Call her."

To the Duchess's surprise, when Cynthia was
brought to the bar of justice, and accused of
Use-majesty she at once pleaded guilty, say-
ing her proud heart sometimes got the better
of her ; and kneeling down, kissed the hem
of her mistress's garment, in token of submis-
sion. This appeased the placable Giulia, who
contented herself with asking what business
she had with pride.

"You doubted my fidelity, Leila," said

The Duchejs in Safety

Cynthia. ': Xo one must doubt the fidelity
of an Abencerrage."

" Tut * how do I know that you are an
Abencerrage?" said the Duchess lightly. "And
what are the Abencerrages, or any other
Moors, in the eyes of Christians ? "

" They may be nothing now, but they were
something once," said Cynthia proudly ; with-
out rising, however, from her knees ; or rather,
sitting upon her heels. '"' While the western
Caliphate lasted, the Christians were few and
straersrling in the land ; and the mountains of
Spain echoed back the cry of the muezzins :
1 There is no God but God, and Mahomet is his
prophet ! ' "

" Ah, profanity S " exclaimed the Duchess, in
disgust ; and at the same instant, her sene-
schal, bowing low, announced to her the
arrival of Cardinal Ippolito de Medici. The
Cardinal was already standing in the doorway,
noting at his leisure, and with admiration,

24 The Buchefs of Trajettc.

the contrast between Giulia's high-born beauty
and that of the dusky Moorish girl at her
feet.

He then advanced, with the mien of a
prince and the tread of a soldier, and said :

" Your peril compelled me to fly to your
succour. I have brought a troop of horse, and
will not leave you till danger and alarm be
past."

" How very good of you ! " said the Duchess.
" I was, indeed, sorely scared — "

" Fear no more," said he. " No harm shall
reach you but through myself."

"How very good of you," repeated the
Duchess. " I was, indeed, as I said, sorely
scared ; but all danger, and even the fear of it,
is now over — "

" That is more than you can tell," in-
terrupted the Cardinal, " and since you,
the noblest and fairest lady in Italy, are
so utterly unprotected, I shall make your

The Dnchefs in Safety

safety my care as long as Barbarossa is off
the coast/'

" Though I hope to have no need of you as a
guard, you are most welcome as a guest," said
the Duchess. Then, addressing her seneschal,
she said, " Let suitable apartments be instantly
prepared for his Eminence and also for his
suite, and provide good quarters for his Emi-
nence's troops and good stabling for their
horses — "

" I lodge with the Dominicans," interrupted
the Cardinal, "'and the Prior will tell me where
to bestow my men — "

"Nay, then/' said the Duchess, ''direct
immediate refection to be served for his
Eminence, and bid the Prior and a few select
friends to supper; to wit, Sertorio Pepe and
his sister, Madonna Bianca, the Abate SifTredi
and the Abate Yincenzo.''

The seneschal bowed low and with-
drew.

26

The Duchefs of Trajetto.

" Giulia," said the Cardinal, reproachfully,
" I am unwelcome."

" On the contrary, you are most welcome,"
said she ; w but I seek to grace my guest, and
distrust my own powers of entertainment.
You find us in sad disorder, but I will send a
line to the Bishop — "

'■Pray do nothing so unnecessary, so un-
wished for — Ah, Giulia 1 it was not thus
I hoped you would welcome me ! You will
never understand that I am your true friend,
and prefer your conversation to that of any
one else. Your welfare, your safety, are dear
to me ; and yet you always distrust me."

"How can you say so?" said she, dropping
her eyes.

" How, indeed, save that you always betray
it ! Come, cannot we be friends ? " said he,
pleasantly. " Once we might have been more,
and now need we be less ? "

" By no means, Cardinal, and — "

The Duchefs in Safety. 27

" I am always Ippolito, to you — "

" By no means, Cardinal ; I enjoy using
your title, it is so noble, so imposing, it
becomes you so well You have taken a
decided part at last, and I esteem you all the
more for it. Your learning and genius will
adorn your high vocation. "What influence
you now possess ! how many look up to you !
Surely your jDOsition must be an enviable
one?"

A complex expression crossed his face, as
he said, with emphasis,

" Very ! And yours ? "

" Oh, mine is what it has long been. It has
its lights and its shadows."

" Shadows ? "

" Not very dark ones, certainly ; but three-
fourths of my life are spent in a sort of dull
twilight, that is — infinitely melancholy ! "

" Whence proceeds that melancholy ? "

'■ I know not. My natural disposition, per-

28 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

haps. I have everything I can want

or wish,

yet it sometimes seems to me that

there is

only one thing to reconcile us to life —

it

"What is that?"

'• The fear of death;'

'•Just so," said he, abruptly.

" Can you, a churchman, tell me

how to

overcome that fear ? "

" There is no fear of your dying — "

" Die I must, soon or late ! Death

comes to

all. Can you, a churchman, tell me

! how to

meet it \ "

" Surely, surely ! The Church has

provided

supports. There are the sacraments.

There

is absolution. There is extreme unction.'"'

" I do not know how these may support me

when the time comes. Meanwhile

they do

not remove the fear of death."

He looked at her earnestly for a

moment,

and was about to speak, but refrained.

At the

same time, the customary refection

of wine

T/ie Buchefs in Safety. 29

and comfits was brought in by two of the
Duchess's damsels, while a third brought a
golden ewer of rose-water, and a fourth a basin
and gold-fringed napkin. The duenna and
Moorish orirl were embroidering at one of the
windows.

When the girls had withdrawn, the Cardinal
and Duchess resumed their conversation, like
two old and familiar friends, who had at some
former period seen a good deal more of one
another than of late.

He spoke of Hayraddin Barbarossa's descent
upon Fondi, and minutely inquired into the
particulars, and the amount of damage done.
He ended with " Well, a wilful woman must
have her way. All this may hajypen again,
and with a worse end."'

" Please do not frighten me," said the
Duchess. " It is very unkind.*'

" I mean it for kindness, for I want to put
vou on vour sruard."

30 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

" I shall be on my guard now. My poor
people have suffered sufficiently to be on the
alert. And I have long thought I should
like to winter at Naples. Now I have a suffi-
cient reason for going."

"The sooner the better. Giulia, how you
surprised me just now by what you said !
How can one so good, so blameless as you are>
be afraid of death ? You have never done
anything wrong. I cannot conceive you ever to
have offended God, even in thought. Can you,
then, be afraid to meet Hi in ? "

" Ah ! I am always shy of strangers ; and,
to me, God is such a stranger ! — "

" But you believe in Him, do not you ? You
believe that He is I "

" Of course ! But that is so little !"

The Cardinal looked as if he thought it a
good deal.

" Your nerves are weak," said he, after a
pause. " Your organisation is too delicate. I

The Duchejs in Safety. 3 1

should advise you to dwell as little as you can
on these things."

" Oh, I speak of them to no one. I don't
know how I came to do so now. Only, I
suppose, because you are a friend and a church-
man."

" I like you so to speak. Say on."

" Why, then, I will add that, apart from this
fear of death, which sometimes thrills me, and
especially did so last night, is a far more per-
manent feeling — a desire for some higher good.
An intense dissatisfaction with myself and
with all the things of this life."

" Do you really suppose that' that feeling is
peculiar to yourself? Everybody has it! — every-
body who thinks and feels. I myself suffer
martyrdom from it."

"Can you — a churchman — prescribe its
remedy \ "

" There are two ways," said the Cardinal,
after a pause, " in which you may overcome it.

The Duchefs of Trajetto.

In the first case, you must fast, you must pray,
you must keep painful vigils, you must per-
form pilgrimages barefoot, you must deny
yourself every innocent enjoyment, you must
bestow all your possessions on the Church — "

" Hold, hold, I can never do all that," inter-
rupted the Duchess. "Tell me some other
way, I beseech you, of remedying the weariness
of life and the fear of death."

" The only other way," said he, hurriedly, " is
to take the world as you find it ; enjoy the
passing hour, indulge every innocent desire, and
— let come what may."

" Is there no other course % "

" None, Giulia, none ! There is no middle
path.* You must choose for yourself."

" Of course I know which I ought to choose,"
said she, sorrowfully. " But to give up all —
and to the Church ! — ah ! this Church must
have charms for you that she has not for me ! "

* ISTon c' e mezzo termine.

The Buchefs in Safety

jj

"I am not very deeply in love with her/'
said the Cardinal, attentively regardino- his
nails. " But my part is taken and I will play it
out. Come, shall we talk of something plea-
santer ? "

"Yes, and, some of these days, I will try
this better way you point out— this watchino-
this fasting ; only I know beforehand, I shall
not cany it out."

"INTo good in trying then."

" I am afraid you are right. I so dread the
world's laugh ! And I so dislike doing what is
disagreeable ! "

" Why on earth should you, then ? " said he
briskly.

" Ay, why indeed ? " said she, laughing and
changing the subject. Afterwards she thought,
'• What an answer for a priest ! I was a goose
to say so much to him. I will not do so

The Duchefs of Trajetto.

CHAPTER III.

THE DUCHESS'S STORY.

Giulia di Goxzaga, daughter of the Duke
of Sabbionetta, was born somewhere about the
beginning of the sixteenth century. She was
one of a numerous and beautiful family, and,
from her earliest infancy, the darling of all
hearts. There must have been something
charming about the dear little girl whose
" yezzi e grazie," even from her cradle, were
so extolled by dry annalists,* and whose riper
graces were sung by Ariosto, Bernardo Tasso,
llolza, Gandolfo Porrino, Claudio Tolomei, and
all the noted poets of the day. A child who,

* " Imperroche le fu natura tanto de' suoi doni benefice, e
cosi di vezzi e di grazie la ricolmo, che gli atti suoi e le sue
parole, accompaguate ognora da modesta -vivacity e condite
di un lepor soarissimo, legavano dolceniente a lei gli animi
di ciascuno." — Ieeneo Affo.

The Duchefis Story. 35

from the nursery, kisses, sugar-plums, and
petting could not spoil, her sweetness equally
Lore the test when promoted to the school-
room, where, without any apparent trouble to
herself, she outstripped her elder sisters, Paola,
Ippolita, and Eleanora, in their studies, though
they were none of them considered deficient.
Enough, if not too much, praise was bestowed
on the skill with which her pretty hands
touched the lute and guided the embroidery
needle. Children are quick to hear their own
encomiums, though uttered under the breath.

She had scarcely grown to her full height,
and left off being sent early to bed, when she
was given in marriage to Yespasiano Colonna,
Duke of Trajetto. He was forty, and crippled
with the rheumatism, yet her parents thought
it a suitable match. They told her he was
good, generous, and indtdgent, and so he
proved. She liked him. She liked pleasing
him, and tending him, and receiving his

3 6 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

pleasant praises and smiles. He had a daugh-
ter by a former marriage, rather younger than
herself, and he wished them to be friends ; but
Isabella was of a colder nature than Giulia.
The Duke had a singular feeling towards his
little bride. She was so good, so pure, that
he shrank from her being contaminated by
the pernicious influence of Italian society,
such as it was in the sixteenth century, and
resolved to seclude her from it as much as he
could in the retirement which his infirm health
rendered so grateful. But he did more than
this, for he resolved that her mind should
receive the highest culture, and thus possess
- urces in itself which should make retire-
ment happy. And as he was a man of good
parts and delightful conversation, affectionate,
indulgent, and quietly humorous, it is not
at all surprising, I think, that he captivated
this young girl, and made her really love
him.

The Duchefs's Story. 37

This rendered more than tolerable her
attendance on him as a nurse. He would not
let her do anything really painful or weari-
some, took care that she should have plenty
of open-air exercise, and won her admiration
of his patience and cheerfulness during his
tedious decline.

AYhen he died, in the year 1528, he left
Giulia mistress of all his possessions in the
Campagna, the Abruzzi, and the kingdom of
Naples, and guardian of Isabella, whom he
designed for the wife of Ippolito de' Medici,
nephew of Pope Clement the Seventh.

Giulia soon felt the want of a male pro-
tector, for two of the Duke's kinsmen, Ascanio
di Colonna and Xapoleone Orsini, laid claim
to the estates. The Pope substantiated her
right to them, and the Emperor Charles the
Fifth, then a young man of eight-and-twenty,
commissioned her brother, Don Luigi, to put
her in possession. Luigi, who was a brilliant

38 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

soldier, paid his sister a hasty visit at Fondi ;
and before he left it, he and Isabella exchanged
secret vows of affection.

When Ippolito de' Medici, with youth, good
looks, and noble bearing to recommend him,
was sent by the Pope to woo and win Isabella,
he found the Duchess much more attractive ;
and when she remarked one day on something
strange in his conduct, he spoke out at once,
and said —

" Giulia, I care nothing for her — and I
cannot but care for you ! "

Thereon the Duchess was much offended,
and said she should write to the Pope. Ippo-
lito very stoutly refused to own himself at all
wrono*. Giulia's widowhood, he averred, had
been long enough for the world to suppose
that her hand might be sued for. The Pope
would be well pleased to see him win the
daughter, but infinitely more so at his obtain-
ing the mother. Giulia veiy indignantly

"The Due kefs' s Story.

replied that no Pope on earth had, or should
have, power to make her many again, against
her -will. She was a free agent ; she respected
and cherished the memory of her dear Duke
too much ever to give him a successor. The
amaranth was her chosen emblem, and " Non
7/writura" her motto.

Ippolito here ventured to murmur some-
thing about disparity of years, which she
instantly checked as the height of disrespect ;
and he then said all that could be said by a
very clever man, really and deeply, and
honestly in love ; but the more he said, the
less Giulia minded him, for the idea had
possessed itself of her mind that he might
not have found her so pre-eminently attrac-
tive but for the thirteen thousand ducats
which her orood Duke had added to her dowry
of four thousand immediately after their
marriage. Besides, she was extremely sensi-
tive to the opinion of " everybody," and she

40 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

pictured what " everybody " could say, if, after
inviting Ippolito to hear castle as the suitor of
her step-daughter, she were to marry him
herself. Moreover, she did not like the Medici ;
they were wonderfully clever, but they were
not good. Yolti sciolti, pensieri stretti — she
would rather not trust her happiness to any
one of them. Or to any one. Why should
not she continue, free and happy as she was ?

So Ippolito found her impenetrable to the
most insinuating words and melting tones ;
and as she found him equally impracticable on
the subject of being faithful, as she called it, to
Isabella, though he denied having pledged any
faith to her at all, Giulia told him very
plainly she wished he would end his visit ;
which he, much hurt, said he would do. And
his farewell bow was as stiff and stately as if he
were an unsuccessful envoy to a warlike sove-
reign ; and he went away without any leave -
taking of Isabella.

The Dtichefs's Story. 41

Thereon, the Duchess, much fluttered and
embarrassed, went to tell Isabella that Ippolito
was gone ; and Isabella, in her cold, dry way,
said :

"Why?"

Then the Duchess said he had been talking
very uncomfortably and unintelligibly : he
seemed hardly inclined to fulfil his engage-
ment. Then Isabella said :

" He need not trouble himself. I made no
engagement with him."

Then the Duchess said :

w: ILy dear Isabella ! what cam you be think-
ing of? :5

" I am thinking,"' says Isabella, after a
pause, " of Rodomonte/'

"Possibile? eke giqja!" cried the Duchess,
embracing her.

Rodomonte was the pet name of Giulia's
younger brother Luigi, already spoken of. If
Isabella were inclined to marry him, her por-

42 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

tion would be a famous thing for him. The
only question was, would the Pope consent ?

The Pope consented when he found Isabella
would not have Ippolito at any rate, and when
he learnt that Ippolito had good hope of se-
curing the Duchess. So Luigi and Isabella
were married, and Luigi was mortally wounded
the following year in endeavouring to recover
one of his sister's castles ; and died recom-
mending his widow and infant son to her care.
Isabella afterwards married the Prince of
Sulmona.

Ippolito now changed his tactics. When
the Duchess had received him as the future
husband of her step-daughter, she, not imagi-
ning their positions could be misunderstood,
addressed him by his Christian name. Where-
on he, not to be behindhand, and seeing that
they were nearly of an age, immediately called
her Giulia, and persisted in doing so in spite of
hints and rebuking looks. Now that he had

The Buchefs's Story

been charged with " disrespect," he resolved to
try what the utmost deference could do ; so
he sent her a translation he had made (ex-
tremely well, too}, of the second book of the
iEneid, with the following dedication prefixed :

" Because that it often happens that one's
woes are soothed by matching them with those
that are greater, I, not finding for my pain any
other remedy, have turned my mind to the
burning of Troy ; and, measuring my own
wretchedness with that, have satisfied myself
beyond doubt that no evil happened within its
walls which I myself have not felt in the depths
of my heart ; the which, seeking in some
degree to ease by thinking; on Trov, I have
thereby been enabled to understand. I there-
fore send you this, that it may give you a truer
picture of my grief than my sighs, my tears,
my pallid cheeks could ever impart."'

The obdurate Giulia was not to be melted.
She was more impenetrable than ever; and

44 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

with good reason ; having heard of a street
fight in Rome, in which Ippolito had killed a
man. It is true Ippolito said he had not meant
it — he only meant to hurt him, and teach a
lesson to a troublesome fellow. However that
may be, the man was dead, and Ippolito was
under a cloud for a while, till it blew over,
according to the fashion of the times, and he
could come out again with only the taint of
justifiable homicide. He was a good deal
quieted. He did not know what to do with
himself, nor did the Pope (a very bad old man)
know what to do with him or for him, since he
would not or could not make his fortune by
marriage. There was the mixture of fame and
infamy in his lineage which pertained to but
too many of the Medici, and he had not a
penny that the Pope did not give him ; so the
only opening for him was in the Church. He
gave him the Cardinal's hat.

A handsome, comfortable-looking cardinal

The Due kefs' s Story. 45

was Ippolito, with very little token of care
feeding on his damask cheek. You niav see
him, any time you like, in the National Gallery
— there he is. pen in hand, at a table covered
with a Persian carpet, having just signed a deed,
apparently, to which Sebastian, the famous
Venetian painter, has affixed the leaden seals, in
virtue of his office as keeper of the Papal
signet — whence his coo-nomen, Del Piombo.
Note them : they are noteworthy men. Sebas-
tian has put himself foremost ; the Cardinal in
the background But the Cardinal takes it
easily ; he has a jolly, good-tempered face,
black eyes, an aquiline nose, and black hair.

His relations with Giulia were a good deal
altered by the cardinalate. She need no longer
fear him as a suitor ; she hoped his entering
the Church was a sign of a changed heart ; she
revered his holy office, and gradually identified
him with it. Once or twice, when affairs drew
her to the Eternal City, she saw him take part

46

The Duchefs of Trajetto.

in the grand pageantry ; and when she heard
Kyrie Eleison rolling and swelling through
nave and aisle, and Yeni Creator breathed like
the whispers of angels in soul-subduing soft-
ness, and the Pope himself intoning the Te
Deura, — her unsophisticated mind was deeply
impressed ; for Giulia was still, and all her life,
as guileless as a little child ; and herein, no
doubt, lay the unexplained and unexplainable
attraction about her. She was glad Ippolito
had put an insuperable barrier between her and
himself, because now she could enjoy his really
delightful society, when they met, without
alloy.

But they did not meet very often ; and it
was a good thing they did not, for Ippolito
loved her as dearly as ever. It was a good
thing they did not meet often, and yet it was
a good thing they met sometimes, and that her
influence continued to be felt by him, for it was
the only good influence he had ! Poor Ippolito,

The Buchefs's Story. 47

with all his sins, was much better than those who
constantly surrounded him. The nearer from
church, the farther from God, was awfully true
of the Papal court ; and if he sought refuge from
men in books, as he continually did, they were
the books of heathens, none the less anti-Chris-
tian and poisonous for being in Greek.

While the very ground seemed sinking under
him, and all trust and hope in himself and
others perishing, there came the news that
Giulia was in danger, and had fled to the
mountains to escape Barbarossa, Instantly his
better nature awoke, and he flew to her
succour.

43

The Buchefs of Trajetto.

CHAPTER IV.

MOORISH SLAVES.

A CLATTER of horses' feet in the court -yard
announced the arrival of new guests ; and when
these proved to be noble kinsmen and friends
of the Duchess, who had hastened to rally
round her in her danger, the Cardinal inly
congratulated himself on having been the first
comer and the recipient of her first thanks.

The old feudal castle, lately the nest of a
few defenceless women, now resounded with the
clank of arms. Nothing could be more grace-
ful than the Duchess's reception of her guests.
There was just enough of danger past, and
possibly impending, to give zest to present
safety and sociality. The feast was spread
in the old ancestral hall, where the family
plate shone in beaufets ten feet high, music

Moori/h Slaves, 49

breathed from the gallery amid the pauses in
conversation, and the cobwebbed banners waved
heavily overhead in the cool evening air from
the Mediterranean, that stole through the open
windows. Giulia's little cloud had entirely dis-
appeared : it was simple and even needful that
she should just now only seek to embellish the
passing hour ; and the Cardinal, as the noblest
dignitary present, fully seconded her as leader
of the feast, or rather took the initiative in
entertaining and pledging the rest, while she
had only to sit by, smile, and enjoy it all.
The Moorish girl, with splendid jewels in her
ears, stood behind the Duchess with a feather
fly-flapper.

Barbarossa's enormities were the favourite
theme ; there was plenty of red put in the
brush. The streams of blood he had shed
would float a squadron ; his beard was bright
scarlet. He was even worse than his brother
Home had been ; and now that he was Dey of

50 The Bttchefs of Trajetto.

Tunis, as well as of Algiers, and the ally of
Solyman the Magnificent, the world would not
hold him ! He would swallow Italy, some of
these nights, at a snap.

Yet it was astonishing what some of the
company were ready to do, single-handed,
against him ! Only let him come on ! They'd
show him something. The Duchess need not
be afraid. Not a hair of her head should he
touch.

The next day or two these bold spirits
scoured the neighbourhood, and — as Barbarossa
was out of sight — they did not spare their
bragging. They only wished he would come
back, that they might give him his deserts.
The Cardinal grudged these vapourers their
share of Giulia's ear. True, he sat at her right
hand ; and none of them were younger, braver,
handsomer, or wittier than himself. And it
was sweet, with all its mixture of bitter, to be
here at all ; but then, how soon it would end !

Moor'tjh Slaves. 51

How soon pass into that hungry, never-satisfied
abyss of vanished, irreclaimable joys ! And
then his old feeling of blank, gnawing dissatis-
faction returned.

" That Mauritanian slave of yours," he said
one day to Giulia, as they returned from a
reconnoitering party, "is singularly beautiful.
She would make a good study for Sebastiano.
How I wish you knew that remarkable man !
You would delight in his musical attainments.
He touches the lute and viol with rare perfec-
tion, and has composed some exquisite motets.
As a portrait painter he is unrivalled. The
Pope is so pleased with the likeness he has
painted of him, that he has conferred on him
the office of keeper of the papal signet. His
verses are charming, and he is a most excellent
companion."

" You excite my curiosity," said the Duchess.
" Cannot you invent some excuse to bring him
here I"

E 2

52 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

" Certainly," said the Cardinal, who was
aiming at this very point. "There could be
no better method than for me to tell him you
had promised me your picture. This would
draw him hither quite easily, after such repre-
sentations as I should make to him ; for you
must know, Sebastiano is becoming exceeding
coy and difficult, and will only on much im-
portunity be prevailed on, now, to paint a
portrait. It is really the branch in which he
excels, and by which he will be known to pos-
terity ; but he is slow and irresolute in his
execution, and his taste chiefly inclines him to
large historical pieces, in which he is excelled
by Michael Angelo and RafFaelle. I beseech
you, let me send him to paint your portrait.
You will be repaid for your complaisance
by becoming acquainted with a really great
artist."

" So let it be, then," said the Duchess.
" With regard to my Moorish girl, he may in-

MooriJIi Slaves. 53

traduce her in the background if he will
Beautiful she is, but the crossest patch at
times ! I pity her, and humour, and perhaps
spoil her a little, yet I shrink from her some-
times, for we hardly seem of the same flesh and
blood."

" Is she converted ?" inquired the Cardinal.

" Baptized," said the Duchess, " but she
seems utterly unimpressible as to Christian
doctrine. Confess she will not, and when we
endeavour to enforce its obligation on her, she
answers us in her Arabic jargon, 'I do not
understand.' "

" Is it safe to have her about you ?" said the
Cardinal.

" I know not that there is any harm in her,"
said the Duchess, " and she can be very ingra-
tiating when she likes ; but I own, a horrible
thought crossed my mind when she and I were
escaping through the caverns. ' What if she
should have brought Barbarossa onus?"

54 ^he Duchefs of Trajetto.

" That is quite possible," said the Cardinal,
gravely. " Has she any confederates here-
abouts, think you, among her own people V

" The only other Moor in my establishment
is a poor boy whose tongue has been cut out.
His own people thus punished him, when he
fell into their hands, for having come over to
us ; he escaped from them, and knows too well
his own interest to betray us. He is in my
stables."

" I do not altogether like this," said De Me-
dici, meditatively ; " it would be well to induce
the girl to confess, even by a little wholesome
torture ; for as long as she is unshackeled by
Christian obligations, you have no hold on
her."

" Torture, however," said Ciulia, " is a course
I particularly dislike."

They were now riding into the castle court-
yard ; and, as the day was very warm, she was
thirsty, and called for a glass of iced water. It

Moorijli Slaves.

was brought her by Cynthia ; and at the mo-
ment she appeared with the goblet on a salver,
a large Spanish bloodhound, belonging to Al-
fonso Gonzaga, sprang at her throat.

The poor girl screamed piercingly, and so
did the Duchess, who sprang from her horse.
Gonzaga, brutally laughing and swearing, called
the dog off without success ; but the Moorish
stable-boy, seizing it by the tail, bit it till his
teeth met. The unfortunate Cynthia was re-
leased, and she fell swooning into the arms of
her compassionate mistress, whose dress was
stained with her blood. She was instantly re-
lieved of her burthen, however, by her maestro
di casa, Perez, who bore her off to her women,
while the hunting-party pressed round Giulia
to extol her humanity to the skies. Turning
to the Cardinal she said, expressively —

" She is of the same flesh and blood, after
all ! " And then went to visit her poor wounded
maiden, and change her dress.

56

The Duchefs of Trajetto.

Cynthia, more dead than alive, was laid on a
pallet bed, and Caterina was in anxious attend-
ance on her, while a Jewish physician dressed
the wound.

" Do you think she will die ?" said the
Duchess in a low voice.

" It is impossible, at present," returned he,
" to pronounce an opinion."

Cynthia opened her languid eyes, and seeing
the Duchess's dress stained with her blood,
mutely drew it to her lips. Giulia kindly
patted her hand, saying —

" My poor girl ! Keep quiet ; be patient,
and you will soon be well," and then withdrew.

AYhen she re-entered the sola dicompagnia,
her cousin was telling stories in a loud over-
bearing voice, of the feats of his dog in hunting
up and pulling down Moors, Jews, and heretics.
The brute's ancestors had distinguished them-
selves in this line during the repeated mas-
sacres in Spain.

Moorifh Slaves. 57

" Pray desist, Alfonso," said the Duchess,
" or I shall be unable to eat my dinner."

He laughed, and continued his narrations
in a lower voice. This was the Cardinal's
last day, and he grudged every moment of
Giulia's time that was devoted to any but
himself.

"Is the girl going on well?" said he to
her.

" The wound is dressed, but her recovery
is considered doubtful by Bar Hhasdai. Do
you disapprove of my employing a Jewish
leech \ "

" By no means ; there are none equal to
them. The Spaniards did very foolishly, I
think, to expel the whole race. There are
no such physicians, astronomers, or meta-
physicians."

" They are sad infidels, however, and Bar
Hhasdai is unconverted."

" All the better,'-' said the Cardinal lio-htlv.

58 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

" I distrust renegades. Better be a good Jew
than a bad Christian. In medicine especially,
I believe a baptised Jew loses half his virtue ;
the charm is broken."

" That never occurred to me," said the
Duchess. " But I dare say it is so, since you
say it."

" Your Jew," observed Ippolito, " will deal
kindly by your Moorish girl, for, under the
western caliphs, his people were fostered by
her people. The prime minister of Abder-
rahman the Second was a Jew of the same
name as your physician, who probably claims
descent from him. The two peoples promoted
each other's prosperity, for the Jews extended
their commerce with the East, and supplied
them with the sinews of war. The Moors
let them peaceably accumulate wealth, occupy
high offices, build synagogues, and cultivate
learning, insomuch that there was not a
Jewish family without a copy of the law ; and

Moorijh Slaves. eg

they all could read it. So that ' the Moor's last
sigh ' was nearly the last sigh of the Hebrew
too. We are profiting by the short-sightedness
of Spain and Portugal. Clement the Seventh
permits even the Jews who have been for-
cibly baptised, to come and settle in his
dominions, without any inquiry into their past
lives ; and owing to their industry Ancona is
becoming a flourishing sea-port. But, Giulia,
if this girl is about to die, she had better
receive the last offices of the Church. I should
like to receive her confession. Tell her, if she
will confess to me, she shall receive a
cardinal's absolution."

" Are you in earnest ? "

" Quite."

This was so high an honour, that the
Duchess did not fail to acquaint Cynthia
with it. But Cynthia had no mind for con-
fession, nor any respect for a cardinal's abso-
lution. She feigned lethargy, and could not

6o

The Duchefs of 'Trajetto.

be induced to admit that she heard or un-
derstood anything that was said to her while
the Cardinal remained.

" This looks bad," said he. " Can anything
be made of the Moorish boy, think you?"

" He is dumb."

" True ; but not deaf, I suppose?"

" No."

" Let us have him in, then. I should like
to speak to him."

The boy was sent for. He was a sad object,
poor lad.

The Cardinal, without any preface, said to
him in the lingua Franca, which was com-
monly understood among the Moors —

"Did you send for Barbarossa?" The
boy's eyes flashed fire.

" If I have any reason to think you did
so, you shall be flayed alive; and I shall be
sure to find out."

The boy looked unmoved.

Moorijh Slaves. 61

" Your only chance of escaping punishment
is your being henceforth inviolably faithful
to your mistress. There, go ; and be a good
boy."

The boy made a salaam and retired.

" There can be no harm," said the Cardinal
to Giulia, " in giving him a little reminder."

Next day the boy was found drowned.
Whether he had tried to escape by swim-
ming, or had intentionally ended his life, no-
body knew. He could no longer be a traitor
at any rate. But this is anticipating.

62 The Duche/s of Trajetto.

CHAPTER V.

THE CARDINAL AND THE JEW.

"I SHOULD like," said Ippolito, "to speak
with that Jew before I leave you. He may-
help me to some curious manuscripts."

The Medici were very clever in hunting up
curiosities of literature ; for their encourage-
ment of the arts sprang less from the love of
that renown which rewards liberal patronage,
than from real, genuine interest in arts and
letters for their oivn sake. Hence the wor-
ship of their very names among poor literati,
to whom sympathy and appreciation are dearer
than gold, though they like that too. Pity
that they loved Plato better than Christ !
The spirit of poetical and philosophical emu-
lation which they kindled was accompanied by
utter obtuseness to spiritual things. A keen

The Cardinal and the Jew. 63

sense of purity of language fostered no love
of purity of life ; there was, in fact, complete
antagonism between the elegant disciples of
Lorenzo and the severe followers of Savona-
rola and Bernardino Ochino ; and if the very
light that was in them was darkness, how
great was that darkness ! The Medici re-
tarded rather than advanced the spirituality
of their age ; and in like manner, though in
different proportion, their elegant biographer
has thrown a false shadow on good, and a
false light on evil. Of course I shall be
covered with obloquy for saying this.

Cardinal Ippolito received Bar Hhasdai in
a cabinet adjoining the sola di (xmvpagnia, in
which music and society-games were beguil-
ing the tedium of the other guests. The Jew
was a grand specimen of the Sephardim —
he was a great deal older than he looked,
his hair unbleached, and his head unbent by

64 Fhe Buchefs of Trajetto.

" Your name is that of a great man/' said
the Cardinal to him.

" My descent is from him likewise/' said the
physician. " I am son, or, as your people
would say, descendant of that Hhasdai ben
Isaac who was Hagib to the second Abder-
rahman, and wrote the famous epistle — of
which you doubtless have heard — to Joseph,
King of Cozar."

" No, I never heard anything about it," said
Ippolito with interest. " Who was the king
of Cozar ? "

" The Cozarim," replied Bar Hhasdai, " were
Jews dwelling on the Caspian Sea, My an-
cestor had long heard of them without being
able to communicate with them, till, from the
Spanish embassy at Constantinople, he learned
that some of them frequently brought furs for
sale to the bazaars there. On this, he ad-
dressed an epistle to them, beginning : ' I, Bar
Hhasdai ben Isaac, ben Ezra, one of the

The Cardinal and the Jezv. 6$

dispersed of Jerusalem, dwelling in Spain/
and so on — 'Be it known to the king that
the name of the land we inhabit is, in the
holy language, Sepharad, but in that of the
Ishmaelites, el Andalus,' &c. Bar Hhasdai
despatched this epistle to the East by an
envoy, who returned six months afterwards,
saving he had hunted hio-h and low for the
Cozarim, without being able to find them.
Their kingdom undoubtedly existed, but was
quite inaccessible. Bar Hhasdai transmitted
his letter afterwards, however, through two
ambassadors of the Asiatic people called
Gablim, who visited Cordova."

" And were these Cozarim the lost tribes ?"

'•'I know not."'

'•' "Where are they now ? "

'• They are not found;'

" How came you Jews to settle in Spain \ n

" I believe in Abarbanel. He tells us that
two families of the house of David settled

66 The Du chefs of 'Trajetto.

in Spain during the first captivity. One of
them settled at Lucena ; the other, the Abar-
banels, took root at Seville. Hence all their
descendants were of the royal stock — of the
tribe of Judah."

" You yourself, then, are of the royal
stock ? "

" I trace up to David."

Ippolito did not know whether to believe
him ; but he evidently believed in himself.

" I thought," said De' Medici, " your genea-
logies were lost ? "

"Not when we came to Spain. But it is
believed that many Jews were in Spain even
prior to the first captivity — Jews who came
over with the merchant ships of Hiram in the
days of David and Solomon, and who remitted
large sums of money towards the erection of
the Temple. You may see a tombstone that
confirms this, without the walls of Saguntum,
to this day. It bears the following inscription

The Cardinal and the Je-zi\ 67

in Hebrew — ' The sepulchre of Adoniram, the
servant of King Solomon, who came hither to
collect tribute.' The tomb was opened about
fifty years ago, and found to contain an em-
balmed corpse of unusual stature/'

'"This is curious/' said the Cardinal,
reflectively, — "and merely a matter of curi-
osity/'

" It ought not to be so in your eyes — nor in
the eyes of any thoughtful Christian,"' said Bar
Hhasdai.

"Why not?"

" Because we Sephardim were not consent-
ing unto the death of him whom you term the
Christ/'

" Ha ! — But you would have done so, most
probably, if you had been on the spot."

" That is a gratuitous supposition. On the
contrary, we wrote an ejDistle to Caiaphas the
High Priest, pleading for the life of Jesus,
whose good report had been brought us."

F 2

68

The Buchefs of Trajetto.

"Can this be so .

" Prince Cardinal ! when I and my brethren
were banished from Spain forty years ago, we
appealed to an ancient monument in the open
square of Toledo, bearing the inscription of
some very early bishop, to the effect that we
Sephardim had not quitted Spain dining the
whole time of the second Temple ; and, there-
fore, could not have shared in the guilt of
crucifying Jesus ! "

" Singular ! "

"When Taric the Moor took Toledo, in the
year 710 of your era, he found, at Segoncia,
among other treasures, the actual table of
shew-hread which had belonged to Solomon's
Temple ! and which our nation had secretly
brought to Spain. It was composed of one
huge emerald, surrounded by three rows
of the choicest pearls, and it stood upon
three hundred and sixty feet of pure
gold."

T/ie Cardinal and the Jew. 69

" Are you fabling ? ;' exclaimed the Cardinal,
whom this tradition interested more than all
the rest.

" Nay," said Bar Hhasdai, " the fable is not
mine, at any rate. That such a relic was
really found there, is proved by their changing
the name of the place from Segoncia to Medi-
nat al Meida, the place of the table."

" Why, man, such a relic as that would
redeem your whole race 1 Hist, the Duchess
is singing "

A lute, rarely touched, preluded a sweet,
plaintive air, sung by a balmy voice in the
saloon. The Cardinal listened with pleasure
and a little provocation ; for the Duchess had
twice refused to sing to him, and it was very
bad of her to do so at the request of some one
else. The little snatch of song ended abruptly
in the minor.

" Could not you enter into that ? " said
Ippolito, noticing a strange mixture of sadness

yo T/ie Duchefs of Frajetto.

and sarcasm on the physician's face. He
replied with a distich —

' ' "What saith the art of music among the Christians ! —
' I was assuredly stolen from the land of the Hebrews ! ' "

" Do you mean that that is a Hebrew
melody ? "
"0,yes!"

'■'Jew! why will you not convert, and be
healed?1'

" It cannot be. I have seen whole families
of slain Jews with gaping gashes in their
bodies, heaped at their own thresholds — and
those gashes were made by the swords of
Christians '. "'

" But that was in Spain."

" Bear with me, Cardinal, while I repeat a
parable to you. Pedro the Great of Arragon
inquired of a learned Jew which was the best
religion. He replied : ' Ours is best for us,
and yours for you.' The king was not satis-
fied with this answer, and the Jew, after

The Cardinal and the Jew.

three days, returned to him seemingly in great
perturbation, and said : ' A neighbour of mine
journeyed to a far country lately, and gave
each of his two sons a rich jewel to console
them for his absence. The young men came
to me to inquire which jewel was the most
valuable. I assured them I was unable to
decide, and said their father must be the
best judge, on which they overwhelmed me
with reproaches.' ' That was ill done of them,'
said the king. ' 0, king ! ' rejoined the Jew,
' beware how thou condemnest thyself. A
jewel has been given unto the Hebrew and
likewise to the Christian, and thou hast
demanded that I should decide which is the
most precious. I refer thee to our great
Father, the Giver of all good gifts, who alone
can exactly determine their comparative and
absolute values.' "

This apologue pleased the Cardinal, though,
in fact, it was very superficial. He inquired

72

'The Duchefs of Trajetto.

whether Bar Hhasdai could help him to any
rare manuscripts.

" The few which I possess/' said the phy-
sician, after a j)ause, " are not such as would be
of any value in your eyes : being either on our
own law, or on the science of medicine — '

" Nay, but," said the Cardinal, " the latter
are such as I should greatly prize."

" They are altogether obsolete and unworthy
of your notice," said Bar Hhasdai, " but I have
a little treatise on Chess, which really is a
curiosity in its way ; and also a treatise on
Aristotle's Ethics, by Rabbi Joseph ben Caspi,
of Barcelona, which is at your service."

" Let me have them both," said the Cardinal,
" and in return I beg you to accept this ruby
of small value."

" This is a rare gem ! " said the physician,
with delight, " and cut with Hebrew characters.
May I really have it 2 "

" Certainly. And pray tell me before you

The Cardinal and the Jew.

go, do you think the Moorish girl will
recover \ :'

" I have some hope of it."

" Could not you, as you have a key to her
confidence, which we have not, ascertain
whether she is really faithful to the Duchess ? "

"There can be no question of her fidelity.
She has spoken of her mistress with gratitude."

" That is well. Farewell, then."

74

The Duchefs of Trajetto.

CHAPTER YI.

THE S0EE0W8 OF THE JEW.

When Cardinal Ippolito had taken leave,
and the last glimpse of his scarlet tippet had
been seen as his little cavalcade wound out of
sight, Giulia found her remaining guests very
stale, flat, and unprofitable ; and when they
too had departed, she became exceedingly
listless and peevish ; very much in the mood
of little children in the nursery, when they
weary their muses with " I don't know what
to do ! "

To do Giulia justice, it must be admitted
that this mood was not habitual to her. Natu-
rally sweet-tempered, and highly cultivated,
she had too many resources within herself to
be accustomed to find her time hang heavy on
her hands. She could sing, play, and paint;

T/ie Sorrows of the "Jew. 75

she was skilful at her needle ; she wrote very
tolerable sonnets, and corresponded with many
of the most celebrated people of the day. She
was praised without insincerity by men whose
names are still honoured among us. And yet
she was just now in that vapid frame when one
exclaims — " Man delighteth me not, nor woman
either ;" in that longing for some unknown,
unattainable good which made St. Anselm say
— " Libera me, Domine, a isto misero homine
meipso ! "

So she leant her head on her hand and shed
a few tears : then, fancying she must be sick-
ening of marsh miasma, she sent for Bar
Hhasdai.

The physician, perceiving that there was
nothing the matter with her, began to tell her,
incidentally as it were, while he felt her pulse,
of the grief of the Adimari family, whose son
had been earned off by Barbarossa. The
Duchess became interested in their sorrows,

y6 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

and forgot her imaginary ailments. She con-
sulted with him how she might console them
and relieve other bereaved persons.

" Surely," said she, looking at his hand,
" I have seen that ruby worn by Cardinal
Ippolito 1 "

" He gave it me but yesterday," said Bar
Hhasdai, " in return for two manuscripts of not
half the value ; whereon I sent him another
really rare, and worthy of a place in the Vatican
library."

" You were determined not to be outdone by
him in generosity, it seems," said Giulia. " He
told me he had held a very interesting con-
versation with you about your own people.
Tell me, Bar Hhasdai, is it really true that you
Jews mingle the blood of a Christian child
with your unleavened bread at Passover time ?"

" It is false, most scandalously false," replied
Bar Hhasdai, "and only invented by the
Christians to colour then own outrages upon

The Sorrows cf the Jew. 77

us. You might as well ask, if there were any
truth in the old story of there being a magical
brazen head in the castle of Tavora, which, on
the approach of any one of our race, would
exclaim, c A Jew is in Tavora ! ' and, on his
departure, ' The Jew is now out of Tavora ! '
0 lady ! revolting are the accusations that
have been raised against us ! — of our crucifying
children, drinking their blood, and burning
their hearts to ashes. Sometimes our people
have been tortured till their agonies have
wrunff from them false confessions, which
afterwards have been disproved ; as in the case
of the brothers Onkoa, who, in the reign of
one of the Alonsos, were accused of stealing
two of the king's golden vessels, and by torture
were induced to confess it, in consequence of
which they were hanged. Yet, three days
after, the vessels were found in the possession
of one of the king's own servant.-."

"I have always held torture," said Giulia,

78 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

" to be a very uncertain as well as cruel
test."

" Alonso quoted what I have related, as a
case in point/' said Bar Hhasdai, " when cer-
tain Jews were accused of secreting the dead
body of a Christian, which, after all, turned out
to have been cast into the house of one of
them by his Christian debtor, who owed him a
sum of money he had no mind to repay. Thus
have obloquy and contumely been heaped
upon us, without our having the power to
avenge ourselves ; for the Lord hath forgotten
His footstool in the day of His wrath."

" Who or what do you call His footstool ? "

" In a general sense, the whole earth ; but in
a more particular one, Jerusalem ."

" Since you admit that God has forgotten
you, you must submit to your judicial punish-
ment."

" Lady, it is hard ! Easy to say, but hard to
do. The only consolation is in knowing that a

The Sorrows of the Jew, 79

good time is coming, when we shall — when the
Gentiles themselves shall speed us to our city,
even carrying us on their shoulders."

" Do you really believe that I "'

'•' Literally ! " said Bar EDbasdaL u But I do
not expect to live to see it."'

" You are yet young "

u Ah, no ! I am very old, and worn out with
a life of trouble."

" Tell me the story of your life," said the
Duchess, with interest. "Tell me how you
came to leave Spain."

"Will you listen to me 2 *; said Bar Hhasdai.
" Then you shall hear. In the month Abib, or,
as you would say, in March, in the year 5052,
or according to your reckoning 1492, a decree
was passed that every Jew should quit Arra-
gon, Castile, and Granada, on pain of death
and confiscation. By a refinement in injustice,
we were forbidden to take out of the country
plate, jewel-, or coin : we must convert all our

8o The Buchefs of Trajetto.

possessions into bills of exchange. As our
enemies would not buy of us till the last
moment, and then at a prodigious discount,
you may conceive the way in which we were
pillaged, often reduced to exchange a good
house for an ass, or a field or vineyard for a
few yards of cloth.

"When the royal proclamation was an-
nounced, Abarbanel the Jew happened to be
at court. He entered the king's presence, and
cast himself before him on his face, exclaim-
ing ' Regard us, 0 king ! Use not thy faithful
servants with so much cruelty ! Exact from
us everything we possess, rather than banish
us from what has now become our country ! '
But it was all in vain. At the king's right
hand sat the queen, who was the Jews' enemy,
and who urged him with an angry voice to
cany through what he had so happily com-
menced. We left no effort untried to obtain
a reversal of the king's sentence ; but without

The Sorrows of the Jez:\ 8 1

effect. Baptism was the only alternative. I am
sony to say, there were some who submitted to
it, rather than forsake their homes. Home is
dear ; but it may be purchased too dearly.
More noble were those eight hv/ndared thousand
Sephardim who forsook house and hearth,
garden, field, and vineyard, the synagogues and
the burial-places of their fathers, and, on foot
and unarmed, collected together from every
province, young and old, infants and women,
noble examples of passive endurance, to go
whither the Lord should lead them ! Of that
number was I ; and with God for our guide
we set out

" Do I tire you ? "

" 0 no : Go on."

" About twenty thousand of us took refuge
in Portugal, where they were admitted, pro
tempore, on payment of eight golden ducats
per head : but, if they remained beyond a
certain day. they were sentenced to slavery.

82

The Buchefs of Trajeito.

The frontiers were lined with tax-gatherers, to
exact the poll-tax.

" The majority of us embarked at the
different ports, where brutal ship-masters
exacted enormous sums for their passage, and,
in many cases, burned or wrecked their vessels
when at sea, escaping themselves in their
boats, and leaving the unhappy Jews to perish.
" The crew of the ship in which I, a young
child, was, rose to murder us, for the sake, as
they averred, of avenging the death of Christ ;
but a Christian merchant on board told them
that Christ died to save men, not to destroy
them. So they altered their purpose, stripped
us, and set us on a barren coast, under a
blazing sun, where they left us to perish. We
found a spring of fresh water, at which we
slaked our thirst ; but food we had none. At
night, some of our party were devoured by
lions. Five days we remained in this wretched
state : we were then picked up by the crew of

The Sorrows of the Jew. 83

a passing ship, who tore up old sails to clothe
us, gave us food, and earned us to a port.
The people of that place inquired whether
they had brought us for sale. The ship-master
nobly answered ' No !' and delivered us to our
brethren in the city, who gladly reimbursed
him for our expenses, and united with us in
praying that he might live to a good old age."

" You see there are some good Christians
among us," interrupted the Duchess.

" Certainly," said the Jew. " But the ma-
jority of them were against us : nor did we
experience any better treatment from the
Moors. At Fez the gates were closed against
the Jews, who, beneath a burning sun, could
find nothing but grass to eat, and miserably
perished. Many hundred children were sold
into slavery. One mother was known to strike
her expiring child on the head with a stone,
and then breathe her last on his dead body.
Two hundred widows dwelt together in Bar-

o 2

84 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

bary, labouring diligently with their hands,
and sharing all things in common. Many of
these women had been separated from their
husbands by cruel circumstances, but knew not
whether they were dead or alive. A pestilence
broke out among the Jews, who filled nine
caravels bound for Naples. On landing there
the disease communicated itself to the in-
habitants, and swept off twenty thousand of
them. At Genoa, the citizens met our people
with bread in one hand and the crucifix in the
other. Their choice lay between baptism and
starvation."

" I cannot wonder," said the Duchess, after a
pause, "that you are prejudiced against our
religion, for you have seen it under false
colours, but I hope the time will come when
those prejudices may wear off."

" I hope it may," said the physician, equivo-
cally ; and he changed the subject.

The little Vespasiano Gonzaga, who, on the

The Sorrows of the Jew. 85

death of the Duke of Sabbionetta, came into
Giulia's guardianship at eight years old, in
after times was very liberal to the Jews. He
granted them a licence to establish a Hebrew
press at Sabbionetta, from which issued several
editions of the Pentateuch, Psalter, and Hebrew
commentaries.*

* Benj. Wiffen, Introduction to Alfabeto Christiana.

86 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

CHAPTER VII.

SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO.

GlULiA remembered, the next morning, as
her cameriera was warping some pearls into
her hair, that she had meant and half engaged
to try a course of mortification on the Car-
dinal's departure. She therefore put on an old
green gown, with bouffonne'e sleeves, which was
almost too worn for a duchess ; and, in a very
easy pair of slippers, sat down to her morning
refection. Some sweetmeats allured her, but
she took a piece of plain bread and a glass of
lemonade ; after which, she thought " Well
done, resolution ! " and tasted the sweetmeats
after all. Moderately, however.

After this, she sat for a good while in a
waking dream ; and then, rousing herself,
determined to go to church, but found it was

Sebastian del Piombo. 87

too late. She thought she would send for the
poor widow of whom Bar Hhasdai had spoken
to her ; but just then, Caterina came to tell her
that her lapdog had run a thorn into its foot ;
and as one act of mercy would do for another,
she superintended the dressing of the little
animal's paw, and did not send for the widow.
After this, she inspected the embroidery of
her maids of honour, and thought of fourteen
rhymes as the skeleton of a sonnet.

She had advanced thus far in this well-spent
day, when the sound of horses' feet made her
suddenly aware of the approach of a visitor.
Now, our Duchess did not like being caught ;
it was very seldom, indeed, that she could be
caught in deshabille ; for she enjoyed the con-
sciousness of being at all times a perfectly
well-dressed woman. It was hard, therefore,
to be found in half-toilette the only time in all
the season that such a misfortune could have
occurred ; especially as it would not be known

88

The Duchefs of Trajetto.

to partake of the meritorious nature of a
penance. However, the mortification would be
all the more complete. Who could the visitor
be ? The Bishop of Fondi ?

She looked into the court -yard, and saw a
grave, elderly person in ecclesiastical habit,
with four mounted attendants, descending
somewhat stiffly from his horse. His face was
rather plain ; his figure tall and imposing. He
had a snub nose, high, broad forehead, small,
penetrating eyes, and auburn hair and beard a
little silvered.

In a few minutes the maggior-domo an-
nounced " Messer Sebastiano Yeneziano."

The Duchess uttered an exclamation of joy,
and advanced, beaming with smiles, to meet
him. Never had she looked more lovely : the
painter started, and paused for a moment, as
she approached. The next instant, her white
hand was in his.

" Welcome, Messer Sebastiano, welcome !

Sebastian del Piombo. 89

How good of you to grace ray poor
house ! "

"Illustrious Lady, his Holiness the Pope
desired me to give you his paternal greet-
ing."

" I gratefully thank his Holiness."

u — And his Eminence, Cardinal Ippolito de'
Medici kisses your hands, and supplicates of
vour condescension that you will remember
your promise to let my poor pencil limn your
features."

" I have not forgotten it. I shall esteem it
an honour to sit to so great a master. How
would you have me dressed, Messer Sebastian ?
What pose shall you choose ? "

" Vossignoria will allow me to study you a
little before I decide ? "

" Certainly, certainly. Rather formidable,
though, to think I am always being studied ! "

" I should recommend Vossignoria not to
think at all about it."

90 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

".Well, I will try. You are fatigued with
your journey, Messer Sebastian."

"It will soon pass off. My band is not
steady enough to paint to-day. The journey
has interested me. I have made acquaintance
with the promontory of Circe, the shining rock
of Anxur, and the towering Volscian moun-
tains— all renowned in song, as I need not tell
you, Signora ! I observed Cora and Sezza
shining like aerial palaces against the brown
rugged rock that supports them. I viewed
with interest the woods and thickets that once
sheltered Camilla. Piperno is, you know, the
antiqua v.rbs of Virgil. I am speaking to a
princess who is a classical scholar "

" Little enough of one," replied the Duchess,
" Cardinal Ippolito took compassion on my
ignorance, and translated the second book of
the Eneid for me. But how go things at
Rome ? "

And the great painter found that the great

Sebastian del Piombo.

lady was more interested in the chit-chat of
the capital, than in classical allusion and
learned quotation.

The Duchess could always summon at short
notice a little circle of deferential friends to her
evening meal. She appeared in velvet and
jewels. The next morning she wore white.
This was not out of coquetry, but as a simple
matter of business, that the famous master
might make up his mind what suited her
best, as a sitter, and proceed to work.

" Lady," said he, " I prefer the dress in
which I saw you first."

" Oh, but that is so old ! so shabby ! "

"Ron importa — it harmonises with your
complexion "

" Two shades of olive," said she, lauo-hinor a
little ; and she went to change her dress.

When she returned, Sebastian had concen-
trated the light by excluding it altogether
from one window, and placing a screen before

92 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

the lower half of the other. His easel and
panel had been brought in by his attendant,
who was now busy laying hLs palette, and the
artist was selecting chalks and cartridge paper
for a preparatory sketch.

v You look charming," said he, as Giulia
entered and seated herself in a raised chair.
She was in the olive-green dress, cut square on
the bust, with velvet bars on the corsage ; and
full, puffed, long sleeves, a white lace necker-
chief, and long transparent veil, added to the
modest and noble simplicity of her dress ;
while her rich auburn hair, dark in the shade
and golden in the sun,* was braided behind
with a few pearls, and gathered into rich coils.

Poor Cynthia, with her throat swathed up,
stood behind with her feather-fan ; but the
painter looked distastefully at her, and did not

As through the meadow-lands clear rivers run,
Blue in the shadow, silver in the sun."

Hox. Mrs. Norton. Lady of La Garaye.

Sebastian del Piombo. 93

repeat his glance : he had no niind to intro-
duce her, even as a foil.

" I must make a saint or an angel of
you, since you are for a Cardinal," said he,
with a grave smile ; " and it will not be
difficult."

" Surelv, this old gown is not verv angelical ? "
said the Duchess.

<-'Xo matter. A nimbus and pincers will
identify you with St. Agatha or St. Apollonia,
quite sufficiently for the purpose."

He began to draw with great diligence, and
was terribly silent. The Duchess felt inchned
to yawn.

•■ More to the right," he said, abruptly, as she
inclined her head a little to the left. ,; Perdona,
illustrissima."

•• Pray do not stand on ceremony/' said she.
Her countenance had become vacant, and he
felt he must call up it- -ion.

" Do you take anv interest in art, Signora \ '"

94 The Duchejs of Trajetto.

" 0 yes, a great deal. I only wish I knew
more about it."

" Do you know what is its great object ? "

" To address the eye ? "

" To address the mind."

" Certainly. Of course. I ought to have
said so."

" The painter who only aims to deceive the
eye is ignorant of the true dignity of art."

" To deceive the eye, and to please it, how-
ever, are different things."

" I grant it ; but the eye of an intelligent, a
refined person, is not pleased by that which
offends the mind."

"I thought you Venetians cared more for
colour than for drawing or expression."

" I did so as long as I was a pupil of
Giorgione's. But when I came to Rome,
Michael Angelo showed me where I was
wrong. He said, ' It is a pity you Venetians do
not learn to draw better in your youth, and

Sebastian del Piombo. 95

adopt a better manner of study/ I took the
hint, and drew diligently from the living model.
But even this did not content him. ' You
neglect the ideal beauty of form/ said he, ' and
propriety of expression/ I treasured this hint,
too. I said to him, ' If you would condescend
to unite our colouring to your drawing, you
would be — what, after all, you are already —
such a master as the world ne'er saw.' ' That
may not be,' said he, half-smiling ; ' you might
as well try to graft a rose on an oak : but if
you, my son, would unite good drawing to your
colouring, you might distance Raffaelle/ And,
taking up a piece of pipeclay, he sketched
out a Lazarus, and splashed in the colour.
I do not altogether like it, the action is too
violent, and he has made him as black as your
Moorish girl ; but still it is a grand thing
— a very grand thing — the action of the toe,
trying to disentangle the bandage of the left
leg, is wonderfully original. I have tried to

96 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

paint all the rest of my picture up to it. A
little more to the right, Signora ! "

" Cardinal Ippolito told me that picture of
yours was very grand," said the Duchess. " He
especially admired the different expressions of
the two sisters. But he thought the figure of
the Saviour too small."

« Well," said Sebastian, after drawing

for a few minutes in silence, "perfect pro-
portion always gives the idea of smallness.
The figure was on the same scale with the
rest, till Michael Angelo put in his great
Lazarus : and you know I could not re-touch
the master's work."

" Michael Angelo writes to me sometimes,"
observed the Duchess, "but he is a better
correspondent of my cousin, Vittoria Colonna."

Sebastian worked a little while in silence,
and then said :

" Is not the Marchioness somewhat tinctured
with the new opinions ? "

Sebastian del Piombo. 97

"Yes/' said Giulia, "I am afraid she is.
That's the worst of being too clever."

" Is it a proof of being so ? "

" "Well, clever people are apt to run after
new things."

"Perhaps they see more in them than the
less clever do."

" They think they do, at any rate."

"Has your ladyship looked yet into the
works of the Prince of Carpi ? "

"Do you mean the great heavy books you
brought me from the Cardinal ? No."

" They contain a masterly refutation of the
heresies of Erasmus. The Cardinal thought
they might confirm you in the faith."

" I am happy to say my faith wants no con-
firming. I would rather have had some novels.
You may tell him so, if he says anything to
you about it. . . . Have you read the books
yourself ? "

" I have looked into them."

98 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

" Have you read Erasmus's books ? "

" No."

"Well, when I attack controversy, I will
read both sides."

" That will be rather dangerous."

" How can that be ? Only one side can be
right."

" Your excellency is of course above dan-
ger/' said Sebastian, with a little cough, " but,
for common minds, there is the danger of not
distinguishing which is the right. For my-
self, being but a moderate logician, and still
slighter theologian, I prefer taking my religion
as I have been taught it, to meddling with
edged tools. The Church is irrefutable : the
Church has foundations that will never be
shaken. And I am content to abide by its
decisions. — A little more to the right."

The Duchefs and the Painter. 99

CHAPTER VIII.

THE DUCHESS AXD THE PAIXTER.

After the steed is stolen, we shut the
stable-door; and the Duchess, who now felt
very cowardly after dark, set a regular watch
on the battlements, whose orders were that he
should wind his horn every hour, as he paced
his rounds, that she might be certified he was
on the alert. The prolonged, wailing note of
this horn, piercing the solemn stillness of night,
had something infinitely melancholy in it, and
often woke her with a start ; but then she
had the satisfaction of thinking all was safe,
and soon yielded herself again to soft repose.
Her maids, of whom she had as many as the
Duchess in Don Quixote, were much more
timorous than she was, and yielded a good deal
to their fears, thinking it rather pretty and

B 2

ioo The Duchefs of Trajetto.

interesting to start and shriek on the smallest
alarm, till they were scolded out of it by the
Mother of the maids. This important func-
tionary, whose name, like that of Giulia's nurse,
was Caterina, but who bore the dignified prefix
of Donna, was of Spanish birth, starched and
stiff as Leslie's duenna. In the feudal times,
when the sons of knights and nobles took ser-
vice in the household of some brother noble or
knight, and performed the various duties of
page and squire, their sisters in like manner
attended on the said noble's lady, somewhat
in the capacity of maids of honour, under
the strict surveillance of the Mother of the
maids, who initiated them into all feminine
crafts and handiworks, as well as into the
decorums and duties of life. That the
Duchess's household comprised many of these
girls, we know from her will, leaving them
marriage portions, generally with the ad-
dition of a bed and bedding. Doubtless

The Duchefs and the Fainter, 101

there was some Altesidora among them, accus-
tomed to wear the old Duenna's heart out
with her mischief and fun ; but, on the whole,
Donna Caterina's rule was popular. Obedi-
ence, the grand principle of peace and
order, once enforced, she exercised no vexa-
tious petty tyrannies.

On the first rumour of Barbarossa's inva-
sion, Donna Caterina had swept off all
these young people into the cellar, and
there locked them and herself in, while
Caterina, the nurse, devoted herself to secur-
ing the jewels and plate, which she did with
complete success.

Sebastian del Piombo made many studies
of the Duchess before he could please him-
self ; and the irresolution with which captious
cavillers have chosen to charge him was
indicated in the deliberation with which he
poised and valued the merits of each before
his final decision was made. But deliberation

102 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

is a very different thing from vacillation ; and
even irresolution is as often an evidence of a
great mind before the ultimate choice, as it is
of a little one after it. Plenty of illustrations
will occur to you, without any impertinent
suggestions.

After sketching her, then, as a nymph, an
angel, a goddess, he chose the simplest of his
studies : one that represented her as

1 ' A creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food ;
But yet an angel, too, and bright
With something of celestial light :"

and then, to it he set con furore, grasp-
ing palette and brushes as Jove might his
thunder-bolts, and painting up his study
with consummate art and science, often in
dead silence only broken by "A little more
to the right."

As for the Duchess, when she was off duty,
that is, when Sebastian was getting his pic-

The Buche/s and the Painter. 103

ture together, and bringing the separate parts
well up at the same time— as nature creates
her works — she would dabble a little in the
arts herself, and pore over a few inches of
paper, working as if for her bread ; with now
and then a modest appeal, — " Is this altogether
ill-done ? Is this a trifle better ? Just put in
a touch or two."

0, delightful art of painting ! Who can
pursue you and not be happy? Those artists
who have known envy, jealousy, and malice,
have not loved you for yourself, but for ends
far below you ; for you are infinitely calm-
ing ! The true painter knows no rivalry
but with nature, no master but truth, no
mistress but purity, no reward but success.
As Garibaldi, king of men, said last year,
" When God puts you in the way of
doing a good thing, do it, and hold your
tongue."

" Do you think," said Giulia, one day, " I

104 The Duchefs of Trajetto,

might become a good painter, if I gave my
mind to it V

" Certainly, if you gave your mind to it.
But you never will ! You are too rich to
be a good painter. A certain degree of ex-
cellence you may attain, that will embellish
your life and charm your leisure ; but, to
become really great, one must attack paint-
ing like any mechanical trade, and apply
to it like an apprentice, not merely when
the fancy inclines, but at all times, willing
or unwilling."

"Ah, that would never suit me," said
the Duchess. " But, supposing I could leap
over the apprenticeship, and become at
once a great artist like Michael Angelo,
I might have underlings to do all the
rough work for me, and only do what was
pleasant."

" That is not Michael Angelo's way at all,"
said Sebastian. " He grinds his own colours,

The Duchefs and the Fainter. 105

I promise you, and lays his own palette, as
I myself do when at leisure. One thinks
out many profitable thoughts at such times.
And no one can prepare our colours to please
us as we can ourselves. Though many of
the early stages of sculpture are executed
from the clay model by rule and plummet,
yet I assure you Michael Angelo trusts it
to no inferior workman, but does it himself.
He is a great man! a truly great man!
And one of his great achievements has
been to sweep away the gold and purple
backgrounds and other puerilities of the
dark ages."

Sebastian little thought art would ever
make a retrograde progress to pre-Raffael-
itism. Do we then, after all, move in a
circle ?

In a month, the picture was finished. It
was curious that Giulia should have sat for it,
at Ippolito's request, and for Ippolito ; but we

io6 The Buchefs of Trajetto.

know that she did. Affo supposes that she
could not in courtesy refuse him, after his
coming so chivalrously to her succour. You
may see the picture now, at the National
Gallery. The Duchess and the painter had
quite a friendly parting ; and she engaged him,
at his earliest leisure, to paint her a portrait of
himself.

When the Cardinal saw the picture, it gave
him a strange mixture of pleasure and
pain.

" You have doubtless had a pleasant month/'
said he, moodily. " I wish you had been
Ippolito and I Sebastian."

And when he found that Sebastian had
promised Giulia his own picture, he begged
him to introduce his portrait into it — which
he did.

" Ippolito had, at all events," says one of his
chroniclers, "some loveable and estimable
qualities, and most of the historians have a

The Duchefs and the Fainter, 107

good word for him." * Doubtless this was
owing to the genuine love of letters which
made the Medici the idols of the literati.
Endowed by Clement the Seventh with im-
mense wealth, he was, says Roscoe, " the patron,
the companion, and the rival of all the poets,
musicians, and wits of his time. Without
territories and without subjects, Ippolito main-
tained at Bologna a court far more splendid
than that of any Italian potentate. His asso-
ciates and attendants, all of whom could boast
of some peculiar merit or distinction which had
entitled them to his notice, generally formed a
body of about three hundred persons. Shocked
at his profusion, which only the revenues of the
church were competent to supply, Clement the
Seventh is said to have engaged the maestro
di casa of Ippolito to remonstrate with him on
his conduct, and to request that he would dis-
miss some of his attendants as unnecessary to

* T. A. Trollope.

108 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

him. ' No,' replied Ippolito, ' I do not retain
them at my court because I have occasion for
their services, but because they have occasion
for mine.' " An answer worthy of a Medici,
" His translation of the Eneid into Italian
blank verse is considered one of the happiest
efforts of the language, and has been fre-
quently reprinted. Amongst the collections
of Italian poetry, also, may be found some
pieces of his composition, which do credit to
his talents."*

One morning, when it was discovered that
many valuable statues in Home had been
broken and defaced during the night, the Pope
was so incensed at it that he gave orders that
whoever had committed the outrage, unless it
should prove to be Cardinal Ippolito, should
be hanged. This looks as if he were not
quite sure that Ippolito might not be the

* Eoscoe's Lorenzo de' Medici. Some of his pieces may-
be found in Crescembini, Delia volgare Poesia, ii. 11.

The Duchefs and the Painter. 109

culprit. However, the offender proved to be
Lorenzino de' Medici ; and it required all
IpjDolito's influence with the Pope to get
him off.

A Cardinal who could even be suspected by
a Pope of playing such a prank must have been
a sorrv sort of a churchman ; and though we
read of "his frank, chivalrous nature," it would
be vain indeed to look for anything like spirit-
uality in a Medici. "When Giulia asked him
for something to supply the vague longings of
her heart for a higher happiness than this
world could give, he was quite at sea, and could
direct her to nothing but ascetic observances
and the sacrifice of all her possessions to the
church, whose coffers he so recklessly emptied.
Yet he had a nature capable of better things ;
but it could not shake itself free from the
trammels of earth. When he looked at Giulia"'s
picture he thought, " There, is a woman who
might have made me happy." Perhaps he

no The Duchefs of Trajetto.

even thought, " There is a woman who might
have made me good ;" but when a man thinks
this and makes no effort to become one whit
better than he is, he might just as well spare
himself the reflection.

Of course there were many versions of the
story of Barbarossa's attempt to capture the
Duchess. Affo, the family annalist, summons
all his sesquipedalian vocabulary to dignify the
occurrence with such eloquence as this — " Quali
fosseri gli affetti del suo delicatissimo animo
in cotal fuga, degno argomento di poema ! e di
storia, giovera per interrompimento di questo
basso mio stile, di alzarsi a tanto incapace,"
&c, &c. And Muzio Giustinapolitano indited
an eclogue on the subject, beginning —

' ' Muse ! quali antri o qual riposte selve
Vi teneano in quel punto ? e tu, Minerva !
Qual sacri studj ? E qual nuova vagkezza
II dolce Amor?" &c, &c.

What were you all about, ye muses, god-

The Duchefs and the Painter, 1 1 1

desses, and you, you little god of love," &c,
that you did not fly to the rescue of this ador-
able lady ? and so forth.

It was not only declared that Barbarossa had
been despatched by the Sultan, who desired to
enumerate her among the beauties of his
harem, but that she had flung herself out of
window, in her chemise, and fled barefooted to
the mountains, where she fell into the hands of
some condottieri, who, recognising her, respect-
fully conducted her back to her castle. Giulia
was very angry when these stories readied her,
which she was the last, however, to hear of ;
and when it was learnt that she was contra-
dicting them with warmth, another and worse
story was circulated, that she had had a
Moorish slave assassinated for having told the
truth ; in proof of which, his dead body had
been cast ashore with his tongue cut out.
When Giulia begged her kinsmen to refute
these calumnies, they only pooh-poohed them,

H2 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

which greatly enraged her; and she was
heard to exclaim, "What a world this is!"
which, after all, was not a very original ob-
servation.

Extremely weary of herself and of things
in general, she one morning languidly opened
a letter from her cousin, the Marchioness
of Pescara, with very little expectation
of its affording her much interest or amuse-
ment.

" Yittoria is always a flight above me," she
mentally said. " I never was, and never shall
be, one of your grand intellectual ladies."

This was said with that species of contempt
with which too many of us imply, " Your grand
intellectual ladies are great stupids, after all"
— but are they so? Have they not often the
best of it, even in this world ? Appreciation
and applause that we real stupids would be
very glad of, fall to the share of the work-
ing bees that make the honey, and have not

The Buchefs and the Painter. 113

some of them, at any rate, as fair a hope
as any of us, of a good place in the world
to come?

Thus wrote " the divine Vittoria," as she was
frequently called — not in the sense of her being
a doctor of divinity, but addicted to divine
things : —

" There is now among us a man who is pro-
ducing an extraordinary sensation — Fra Ber-
nardino Ochino, a Capuchin, who comes in the
spirit and with the power of Savonarola. An-
other valuable addition to our Christian circle
is Signor Juan de Valdes, the new Governor
of San Giacomo, and twin-brother of the
Emperor's Latin secretary. How I wish you
were among us 1 "We have a very plea-
sant little society here, quite apart from those
worldlings whose company you and I have
forsworn, our chief delight being to inter-
change thoughts and feelings, cultivate our
minds, and elevate our souls. When the

114 ttg Duchefs of Trajetto.

hot weather comes, I shall return to Ischia.

Farewell.

"Thy Vittoria."

" Truly," exclaimed the Duchess, * to be at
Naples would be ten thousand times better than
to remain here, where the malaria certainly
affects me ; and I am sure my dear Duke would
have said so, were it only for fear of Barbarossa."

So she gave the word of command, to the
immense joy of her ladies, and, after a pro-
digious bustle of preparation, she started with
quite a little army of retainers — six ladies of
honour in sky-blue damask, six grooms in cho-
colate and blue, her maggiordomo in starched

> DO

ruff and black velvet, and a competent number
of men armed to the teeth. She performed
the journey, no very long one, in a horse-litter,
curtained with blue and silver, and piled with
blue satin mattresses ; and when she wished
to change her position she mounted her white
palfrey.

Dawn of a Pure Light. 115

CHAPTER IX.

DAWN OF A PURE LIGHT.

Evex in the darkest period of the middle
ages, God had not left Himself without wit-
nesses of the Truth among the Alps. It was
in the year 1370 that these pure-minded
people, finding themselves straitened for room,
sent emissaries into Italy in quest of a con-
venient settlement. These deputies travelled
as far south as Calabria, where they treated
with the proprietors of the soil for a waste,
uncultivated district. Thither emigrated a
chosen body of the Vaudois, under whose
industrious hands the desert soon blossomed
as the rose, the thorn and the thistle gave
place to clustering vines and waving corn ; and
the blessing of God evidently rested on a
praying people, who fed on His unadulterated

1 1 6 The Duchefs of TrajeUo.

word, and addressed Him without supersti-
tion.

This little light in a dark place could not
shine unobserved. The prosperity of the new
settlers excited the envy of the neighbouring
villagers, who, seeing that they neither came
to their churches nor observed their ceremonies,
got up the cry of heresy against them. The
land-proprietors, however, protected their valu-
able tenants ; and the priests, finding the in-
creasing amount of their regularly paid tithes,
winked at their non-conformity. Thus, the
little band continued to flourish and increase
till the dawn of the short-lived Italian refor-
mation.

From a Calabrian monk of this district,
Petrarch acquired a knowledge of the then
totally neglected Greek language ; and Boc-
caccio learnt it of this monk's disciple. These
two distinguished Italians, of whom it is poor
praise to say that they would still have been

Dawn of a Pure Light. 1 1 j

great men, though the one had never written
sonnets, nor the other novels, gave an impulse
to the benighted minds of their countrymen
which eventually led to the glorious restoration
of learning. The light went on shining more
and more unto the perfect day, till Greek be-
came the one thing needful ; and Greek was the
casket which enshrined the New Testament,

It is sorrowful to know, however, that a love
of letters does not imply a love of religion, and
too often accompanies a total disrelish of it.
Lorenzo the Magnificent lavished all his pa-
tronage on the disciples of pagan Greece, and
Leo the Tenth reserved preferment for the
exponents of a refined heathenism. Erasmus
heard a sermon preached before Julius the
Second, in which the Saviour was likened
to Phocion and Epaminondas. Of Cardinal
Bembo, the apostolical secretary, it was thought
the highest praise to say that he rivalled Cicero
and VireiL

1 1 8 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

A doubtful convert from Judaism, detesting
the brethren who now regarded him as a
renegade, obtained a decree from the Imperial
chamber that all Hebrew books but the Old
Testament should be destroyed. Reuchlin,
the restorer of Hebrew literature among
Christians, rose up to prevent the execution
of this barbarous decree, which would, indeed,
have got rid of the Mishna and Gemara,*
but at the expense (perhaps not too great)
of annihilating many a profound and valuable
work.

Reuchlin's successful opposition aroused the
anger of the clergy, and a hot controversy

* The Mishna, or Duplicate, purports to embody laws
given to Moses on the Mount, and delivered by him, not
in writing, but by word of mouth, to the elders of Israel.
Though a bold imposture, the Jews have accepted it as a
divine tradition. The Gemara, or Accomplishment, con-
sists of a mass of Rabbinical expositions, proverbs, and
allegories. The two, united, form the Talmud, or Doc-
trine ; and to it the Jews referred all thoir decisions,
"making the Word of God of none effect." — Finns Se-
jyharim.

Dawn of a Pure Light. 119

ensued, in which Luther and Erasmus warmly
took pan. Thereby many a chink was made
in the strong prison-walls that shut in the
undying lamp of Truth ; and through these
crannies the pure light streamed forth.

The works of Luther and Erasmus. Zwingle
and Melancthon, were eagerly read in Italy,
but speedily sujDpressed. Some of them, under
feigned names, even found their way into the
Vatican.

" We have had a most laughable business
before us to-day/' wrote the elder Scaliger.
" The Commonplaces of Philip Melancthon were
printed at Venice with this title, ' Per Messer
Ippofilo da Terra Xegra.' Being sent to Rome
they were speedily bought up and read with
great applause, so that an order was sent to
Venice for a fresh supply. Meantime, a
Franciscan friar, who possessed a copy of the
original edition, discovered the trick, and de-
nounced the book as a Lutheran production of

120 The Buchefs of Trajetto.

Melancthon's. It was proposed, at first, to
punish the poor printer, who probably had not
read a word of the original ; but, on second
thoughts, it was decided to burn the copies
and hush up the whole affair."

Almost as bad as Elizabeth Barrett Brown-
ing's having her Greek books bound like novels
from the Minerva press !

It is one thing, however, to perceive the
scandals and abuses of the Romish church,
and another to appreciate the spirituality of
the Saviour's pure doctrine. But there were
Italians who could do this.

" It is now fourteen years," wrote Egidio da
Porta, " since I, under the impulse of a certain
religious feeling, but not according to knowledge,
forsook my parents and assumed the black
cowl. If I did not become learned and devout,
at any rate I appeared so, and for seven years
was a preacher of God's word, though, alas, in
deep ignorance. I ascribed nothing to faith,

Dawn of a Pure Light, 1 2 i

all to works. But God would not permit His
servant to perish for ever. He brought me to
the dust. I was made to cry ' Lord ! what
wilt thou have me to do ? ' And then the
delightful answer was borne in upon my heart,
'Arise, and go to Zwingie/ and he will tell thee
what thou must do ! ' "

The Jews contributed their share towards
the intelligent study of Biblical literature. Al-
ready the world owed to them that prodigious
effort of patient industry, the Masora — a verifi-
cation of every jot and tittle of the Hebrew
Scriptures, for the purpose of giving a full and
exact text of the Holy Word. The newly in-
vented art of printing now gave it extension
and perpetuity. In 1477, the Hebrew Psalter,
and various books of the Old Testament,
issued from the press ; and in 1488, a Jewish
family at Soncino, in the Cremonese, brought
out a complete Hebrew Bible. For thirty
years afterwards, this department of typography

122 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

was almost entirely engrossed by the Jews ;
and I have already mentioned how Giulia
Gonzaga's nephew, Vespasiano Colonna, sub-
sequently allowed the Jews to establish a
printing-press in his duchy of Sabbionetta.

Erasmus published his Greek edition of the
New Testament in 1516. In 1527, Pagnini of
Lucca published his Latin translation of the
whole Bible. Thus, the minds of the learned
were attracted to the Scriptures as literary
curiosities ; and happily there were some
among them who thereby became wise unto
salvation. While, however, the Old and New
Testament were still confined to the dead
languages, they were only accessible to
scholars. But, as early as in 1471, an Italian
translation of the Bible was printed at Venice,
and it went through many editions. A better
translation, by Brucioli, was published in 1530.

Travelling and letter-writing contributed to
enlarge the minds of the Italians and spread

Dawn of a Pare Light. 123

the reformed doctrines. There were also many
Reformers in the service of the Emperor
Charles the Fifth, who freely broached their
opinions while in Italy. Thus, like fire set to
the dry prairie grass, the flame ran across the
country, soon dying out where it found no
combustible matter : in other quarters, smoul-
dering unseen, when it seemed trodden out.
The Pope reproached the Emperor ; the Empe-
ror recriminated, and bade the Pope reform his
clergy. The sack of Rome under the Con-
stable de Bourbon was looked on by many
of the Italians as a judgment on the Pope for
his impiety, and the names of heretic and
Lutheran were no longer heard with horror.
Sermons were delivered in private houses
against the abuses of Romanism ; and the
number of evangelical Christians increased
every day.

About this time, there might be seen,
pacing along the high-roads of Italy, a vene-

124 The Buchefs of Trajetto.

rable man of most charming aspect. His
beard was white as snow, and descended to his
girdle : his profile was finely cut, his skin
transparent and pale even to delicacy ; his
large, lustrous, dark brown eyes were deep set
beneath overhanging brows whose shadow gave
them wonderful intensity of expression. He
carried a staff, but his figure was erect and
vigorous, his tread firm. When he came to
the palace of a prince or bishop, he was always
received with the honours due to one of supe-
rior rank : when he departed, it was with the
same distinction. The lead in conversation was
by common consent yielded to him ; people,
whether rich or poor, hung on his words, and
tried to remember them. He ate of such
things as were set before him, but sparingly,
and as if he did not care what he ate. He
drank water from the spring, or wine tempered
with water.

This was Bernardino Ochino, the Capuchin

Dawn of a Pure Light. 125

friar. He was a native of Sienna, and of
obscure parentage. Impelled by religious
motives, be had early in life joined the Fran-
ciscan Observantines, but be afterwards be-
came a member of the Capuchin brotherhood,
and adopted the most rigid ascetic practices.
These altogether failed to give him the peace
of mind which he sought, At his wit's end, he
exclaimed : —

" Lord, if I am not saved now, I know not
what else I can do ! "

At length he found the very guide he
wanted in the Bible, by the attentive perusal
of which he became convinced that Christ by
his death had made a full, perfect, and suffi-
cient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world,
— that religious vows of human invention were
not only useless but wicked, — and that the
Romish church, with all her appeals to the
senses, was unscriptural and abominable in the

sight of God.

126 The Due kefs of Trajetto.

Ochino's natural powers of oratory, im-
proved as they were by cultivation, led to
his being chosen for one of the Lent preachers
in the principal cities of Italy. He drew
crowds to hear him. The Emperor, when in
Italy, attended his sermons. For the time,
at any rate, he effected in his hearers a
change of heart and life — made them oive
largely of their abundance to the poor, and
reconciled their differences. His adoption of
the reformed doctrines Avas not discovered ;
he seemed aiming at a reformation within
the church, while Luther and Calvin were
effecting one out of it. The lower orders
were becoming imbued with new principles.
An Observantine monk, preaching one day at
Imola, told his congregation that they must
purchase heaven by their good works. A
young boy who was present exclaimed : —

" That's blasphemy ! for the Bible tells us
that Christ purchased heaven for us by his

Dawn of a Pure Light. 127

sufferings and death, and bestows it freely
on us by his mercy ! "'

" Get you gone, you young rascal," retorted
the monk, "you are but just come from the
cradle ; and do you take upon you to under-
stand sacred tilings which even the learned
cannot explain \ "

" Did you never read these words," then
rejoined the boy—" ' Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings thou hast ordained
praise V"

On this, the monk, furious with ancrer,
quitted the pulpit, and delivered the poor
boy over to the secular arm, by which he
was marched off to jail ; an awful warning
to youngsters of his age and degree.

When Giulia Gonzaga arrived at Naples,
it was already beginning to ferment with the
leaven of the new opinions, without having
yet drawn on itself the displeasure of the
Sacred College. She established herself in a

128 The Duche/s of Trajetto,

good house in the Borgo delle Vergini, (sleep-
ing every night in the nunnery of Santa Clara,)
and immediately sought the society of Yittoria
Colonna, whose extraordinary interest in the
reformed doctrines she was at first quite at a
loss to comprehend.

Vittoria di Colonna. 121

CHAPTER X.

VITTORIA DI COLOXXA.

" Vittoria e '1 nome ; e ben conviensi a nata
Fra le vittorie, ed a chi, o vada o stanzi,
Di trofei sempre e di trionfi ornata,

La Vittoria abbia seco, o dietro o innanzi.
Questa e un' altra Artemisia, che lodata.
Fu di pieta verso il suo Mausolo ; anzi
Tanto maggior, quanto e piu assai bel opra
Che por sotierra un nom, trarlo di sopra."

Ariosto. Orlando, xxxvii., 18.

Costaxza, the young and beautiful Duchess
of Francavilla, had, at the beginning of the
century, the fortress of the little island of
Ischia committed to her charge. This young
widow had sense, goodness, courage, rare pru-
dence, energy, and fidelity ; or Ischia, the key
of the kingdom, and more than once a royal
asylum, would never have been entrusted to
her keeping.

130 The Diuhefs of Trajetto.

She was not only guardian of the castle
and island, but of her infant brother, Fer-
dinand, Marquis of Pescara. In his fifth
year, the little fellow was betrothed to the
baby Vittoria Colonna, of the same age, who
was thenceforth consigned to the Duchess
Costanza, to be educated with her future hus-
band ; and the little promes&i sposi might
be seen straying about together, hand in
hand, sharing their sweetmeats and play-
things, and now and then having a little

fight

" Let dogs delight," however, was so strenu-
ously inculcated by the Duchess, that recipro-
cal forbearance soon cemented their affections.
The Marquis was taught that he must reserve
kicks and blows for his future enemies, and
Vittoria that she must learn to bind up
wounds rather than inflict them. And bo
they chased butterflies, gathered flowers, and
hunted fur strawberries together, themselves

Vittoria di Colonna. 131

the prettiest blossoms that ever floated on
summer air.

"• Ah, lovely sight ! behold them, — creatures twain,
Hand in hand wandering thro' some verdant alley,
Or sunny lawn of their serene domain,
Their \ynd-caught laughter echoing musically ;
Or skimming, in pursuit of bird-cast shadows,
With feet immaculate the enamelled meadows.

' ' Tiptoe now stand they by some towering lily,
And fain would peer into its snowy cave ;
Xow, the boy bending o'er some current chilly,
She feebler backward draws him from the wave,

But he persists, and gains for her at last

Some bright flowers, from the dull weeds hurrying past.*'*

And thus the little betrothed led charmed
lives, sporting and caressing, in the intervals
of learning hymns and legends and listening
to the Duchess's fairy tales.

She also taught them a good deal of his-
tory by word of mouth, so that they came to
be quite as conversant with Romulus and
Remus, Curtius and Horatius Codes, as with
giants and dwarfs. Then came the conning

• Aubrey de Vere. "A Tale of the Olden Time.''

k 2

132 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

of the criss-cross row, duly followed by the
Latin accidence, each rivalling and yet help-
ing the other. Learned tutors and gifted
artists gave the Duchess their aid ; and thus
the tranquil days glided on till they were
nineteen ; the bloodshed and anarchy which
distracted unhappy Italy never troubling this
charmed islet.

Bishop Berkeley said of Ischia, in a letter
to Pope : " 'Tis an epitome of the whole
earth ! containing within the compass of
eighteen miles a wonderful variety of hills,
vales, rugged rocks, fruitful plains, and barren
mountains, all thrown together in most ro-
mantic confusion. The air is, in the hottest
season, constantly refreshed by cool breezes
from the sea ; the vales produce excellent
wheat and Indian corn, but are mostly covered
with vineyards, interspersed with fruit trees.
Besides the common kinds, as cherries, apri-
cots, peaches, &c, they produce oranges, limes,

Vittoria di Colonna. 133

almonds, pomegranates, figs, water-melons, and
many other fruits unknown in our climate,
which lie everywhere open to the passenger.
The hills are the greater part covered to the
top with vines ; some with chesnut groves,
and others with thickets of myrtle and len-
tiscus."

During this interval, Pescara had grown up
into a strikingly handsome and interesting
youth. His hair, says Giovio, was auburn, his
nose aquiline, his eyes large and expressive ;
alternately flashing with spirit and melting
with softness. Vittoria worshipped him ; and
this was so artlessly manifest that Pescara grew
a little arrogant upon it. She was a lovely
blonde, with regular features, blue eyes, and
hair of that tint which Petrarch described as
" chioma aurata," and which Galeazzo da Tar-
sia, one of her poet-lovers, called " trecce d'oro."
The Spanish painter, Francesco d'Olanda, spoke
of her rare beauty; and Michael Angelo felt its

134 ^ie T)uchefs of Trajetto.

powerful though innocent spell when, after
their tender leave-taking on her death-bed, he
regretted that he had not kissed her cheek
instead of her hand.

Vittoria's father, in spite of his grand, his-
toric name, was but a condottiere or captain
of free lances, whose business and pleasure
consisted in bloodshed and rapine. He
dwelt perched up in an old ancestral castle
overlooking a gloomy little walled town
on a steep hill-side, from whence he and
his men would now and then sweep down
to devastate the property of his neighbours,
much in the style of our own border chiefs.
It was his son Ascanio, Vittoria's brother,
who made war on Giulia, and seized her
castles.

Thus, Vittoria, the daughter and sister of
fighting men, was ready to admire and sympa-
thize in the martial ardour of Pescara, which
would have had something respectable in it,

Fit tori a di Cohnna. 135

had anv one fousfht in those days for any grand

principle.

At nineteen, the betrothed were married.
Of course there was much rejoicing, much
feasting ; chroniclers record the homages Vit-
toria received from rich relations, in the shape
of diamond crosses, diamond rings, "twelve
golden bracelets," &c, and recount the crimson
velvet gowns fringed with gold, the flesh-
coloured silk petticoats trimmed with black
velvet, the purple brocaded mantles and so
forth, composing her wardrobe, which doubt-
less exemplified the height of the fashion of
the time.

After the great stir was a great calm : two
years ensued of perfect married happiness.
Then the young Marquis was summoned to the
field ; nor did Vittoria seek to withhold him
from the call to arms. The King of Spain was
also King of Naples, so of course Pescara fought
on the Spanish side : but the French were

136 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

victorious at Kavenna, where he was taken
prisoner, after receiving some wounds in the
face, which, the Duchess of Milan told him,
only made him the better-looking.

He charmed his captivity by addressing to
his wife a Dialogue on Love, full of the studied
conceits of the time. Vittoria sent him a
poetical epistle, full of tenderness and classi-
cality. Playing on her own name, she said : —
" Se Vittoria volevi, io t'era appresso. Ma tu,
lasciando me, lasciasti lei."

" If victory was what you wanted, / was by
your side. But, leaving me, you lost her."

One day, when she was with tearful eyes,
inditing a sonnet to him, lo, Pescara himself
suddenly stood before her ! He had been re-
leased on paying a heavy ransom : she looked
on him as " un gran capitano."

Before their happiness could pall, he was off
again, to win new laurels. He had, indeed,
bravery worthy of some good cause ; but he

V it tori a di Culonna. 137

was a stern, inflexible commander : and in
doing justice, he sometimes lost sight of mercy.

Pescara supplied his wife with an occupation
during his absence, by sending her a young
boy to educate ; a little cousin of his own, the
Marquis del Vasto ; beautiful as a Cupid, but
the naughtiest little Turk !

In a little while, Vittoria could guide him
with a rein of silk. It is excellent woman's
work to train boys. It is well to talk to them
and listen to them a o-ood deal ; tell them your
own plans and air-castles ; hear all about theirs ;
help them in little matters and get them to
help you in yours ; ask their opinion some-
times, and suggest rather than intrude your
own. Long walks together inevitably lead to
long talks : little things occur in which the
boy may aid the woman as if he were a man ;
though it be but to help her across a brook or
over a stile.

Del Vasto soon adored Vittoria, and as she

138 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

was a good classic, he feared her detection of
false quantities, and yet would often come to
her for help, sure of obtaining it. He burned
to be a hero like Pescara : they both thought
him quite up to Achilles. But Vittoria was to
learn her idol was made of clay.

They met once more — they spent three days
together, without knowing they were not to
see each other again. He hurried back to
take the lead in a brilliant but cruel campaign.
It included the battle of Pavia. Robertson
calls Pescara the ablest and most enterprising
of the Imperial generals ; and certainly he
divided with Lannoy the merit of this victory,
which caused the captivity of two kings, and
changed the fate of Europe.

Pescara thought himself injured, in having
Francis the First taken out of his hands ; and
his known pique on the subject made a certain
political party, with the Pope for its real, and
a man named Morone for its ostensible head,

Fit tori a di Colt 139

think they might perhaps detach him from
the Spanish interest — in other words, make a
traitor of him.

In an evil hour, Pescara listened. Where
was the pure, lofty influence of his wife at that
moment \ She was far away, believing in his
unstained honour. A fatal letter was written
by him. yielding to the tempter's snares, and
entrusted to a messenger named Gismondo
Santi.

This man, lodging at a low- hostelry on his
journey, was murdered by the landlord, and
buried under his staircase. As no tidings, con-
sequently, were heard of the unfortunate ernis-
sary, Pescara concluded he had turned traitor
like his : and earned his despatches to

the Emperor. Fancy his feelings.

Oh., for Vittoria ! Oh that she had been
with him at first ! — oh ! that she were
with him now ! As he clasped his strong
hands over his burning eves, and strove to

140 The Buchejs of Trajetto.

think, he seemed to see her, sitting at her
writing-table, pensively gazing at his minia-
ture, and then at the crucifix above it, with a
prayer for him on her lips — a prayer that he
might be surrounded by an atmosphere of sanc-
tity and safety.

After crowning such a brilliant campaign
by winning the battle of Pavia, should he
end by dying a disgraced man ? — a convicted
traitor, like De Bourbon, with, perhaps, the
felon death that De Bourbon had escaped?
And all for what % What dust and ashes the
Evil One gives us to drink !

Just then, a courier, hot with haste, brought
him a letter — it was from Vittoria. Too agi-
tated to disentangle gently the tress of her
fair hair knotted round it, he cut it with his
dagger, and devoured rather than read it.

Some bird of the air had earned the matter !
—she had heard of the plot ! Xo Lady Mac-
beth was Yittoria, to urge her husband on to

Vittoria di Colonna. 141

guilt — she was his guardian angel, and wrote,
with infinite trouble and anxiety, to implore
him to thiok of his hitherto unstained character,
and to weigh well what he was about, declaring
to him that she had no desire to be the wife of
a king, but only of a loyal and upright man.

This letter decided Pescara as to his course.
He wrote a full confession to the Emperor, who
certainly owed him small thanks for it, seeing
he believed him to know all already ; and the
confederates he compromised owed him still
less. Pescara was too deep in the mire now,
to come out unstained. He returned to his
allegiance to the Emperor, but he betrayed his
friends, his tempters, accomplices, or whatever
name we may give them. The Pope, of course,
was above danger ; but Morone fell into a
regular trap laid for him.

Vittoria, far away in her little island, would
only hear as much as Pescara chose to tell her,
and in his own way. She would suppose his

142 T/ie Duchefs of Trajetto.

character unscathed, his possession of imperial
favour undiminished, since he was shortly after-
wards made generalissimo of the forces. Sud-
denly his health broke down. Xo one could
say why, unless the slight wounds he had
received at Pa via had injured him more than
was supposed. A troubled mind, probably, was
at the root of his mortal sickness.

And so, in the prime of life, and loaded with
honours, he found all earthly things receding
from his grasp, and death hovering in view.
In great anguish he sent for Yittoria, begging
her to come quickly. She started instantly
with all speed, and had travelled as far north-
wards as Viterbo, when she was met by the
news of his death.

Thus closed their life's romance. And if she
had breathed her last on his grave, she would
only be known to us, if known at all, as a con-
stant, affectionate woman. Instead of which,
she lived to immortalise his memory in noble

Vittoria di Colonna. 143

verse, to exemplify by her life a rare purity,
constancy, intelligence, and devotion, and then
to dedicate her pen to the loftiest themes that
an evangelical faith could consecrate. No mere
idyls or love-verses : her poems are full of deep
thought and profound piety.

This was the Vittoria, perhaps the most dis-
tinguished lady in Italy, whom Giulia Gonzaga,
her cousin by marriage, found at Naples, listen-
ing to the preaching of Bernardino Ochino.

Del Vasto, her boy pupil, was now arrived at
man's estate, and her dearest friend. He was
married to Maria d'Aragona, the greatest beauty
of the day. Like Pescara, he was destined to
die earlv.

144 Vke Duchefs of Trajetto.

CHAPTER XL

VALDES AND OCHINO.

Evening was closing on Naples and Pau-
silippo — bright, serene, odoriferous. The sea
spread its azure surface as smooth as glass —
many a lateen sail was extended to the grateful
breeze. The universal hum of a talkative city
was continually broken by whoop and halloo,
scream and laughter, snatch of song or the
sound of some stringed or wind iustrument.
Now and then a church bell fell musically and
mournfully on the ear.

A grave signor sat pensively at a table, with
an open book before him. He was the true
type of a Castilian hidalgo ; tall, spare, with
long, narrow face, classically cut features, the
eyes almond-shaped and very dark, lighted as
if from within : the face oval, the beard

V aides and Ockino. 145

pointed, the skin clear olive, the brow high
and pale.

His habit was of black velvet,, slashed with
satin and with buttons of jet : a small starched
cambric ruff, edged with lace., was closed at the
throat with white silken cords and tassels. A
rapier at his side ; a diamond of the purest
water on his long, thin white hand.

" It must needs be so " — such was the tenor
of his meditation. "The very image of God
must be stamped on our souls like the cameo
in soft wax, if we are to be His. Oh, mv God,
mould me with thine own impress '. stamp me

with thine own seal ! keep my thoughts I

cannot keep them ! — efface even the mem- a
of sin. Make me a weapon for thine own
armoury, whether to be used in actual ser-
vice or to hang on the wall readv for

use

He covered his face with hi- hand, and re-
mained lost in thought, till some one tapped

146

The Buchefs of Trajetto.

at the door. It was Fra Bernardino Ochino,
the Capuchin.

I know not why Ochino should have had so
white a beard ; for his age, at most, was scarcely
fifty : but so it was.

" Brother," said Valdes gladly, " you come
at the right moment ; for I am in a singular
frame of mind."

" Strange ! " cried Ochino ; " I, too, found
myself in a singular mood, and it was on
that account that I sought you. There are
times when I am oppressed by vain ques-
tionings ; and nobody quiets them better than
you do."

" I wonder whether your questionings relate
to the same subject as my own," said Valdes,
with his peculiarly sweet smile. " Come ! let
us talk it out. It wants half-an-hour yet to
the time when Donna Isabella expects me."

" You know," said Ochino, " I am not book-
learned — "

V aides and Ochino. 147

"My chief book is my mind," rejoined
Valdes. "Therein I read a nature totally
corrupt, and find an unutterable want of
God. My other book is His word. Herein
I find a solution to every question, a remedy
for every want, in the blood of Christ. And
that is my peace."

" Such is the substance of all my preaching.
I aim not so much at pulling down rotten
opinions as sowing good seed."

" You are right, you are right : that will
carry us through. The rotten walls will fall
of themselves. They already totter and
crumble."

" But oh, what a God is ours ! " cried Ochino,
stretching his two arms straight upward. " His
judgments are past finding out. How easy it
would be to Him to make all straight ! — I find
myself ready to pray there may be no hell :
that it may be a depopulated country — a
bumt-out volcano : that all, all may be saved."

l 2

148 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

" Surely you may do that," said Valdes.
" The Lord's hand is not shortened, that He
cannot save. He stands at the door of our
hard hearts and knocks. He cries 'turn
ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?' Could
a rami say more? Excuse the bathos of
the expression. It is man who says ' I
will not.' "

" But what vindictive expressions — "
" Hush, hush, my brother. David's vindic-
tive expressions were those of a Jew, not a
Christian : and, after all, what a loving heart
he had ! If he stormed at his enemies one
instant, he forgave them the next. Otherwise,
he could never have been the man after God's
own heart. His inner being is subjected to
a test that none of us could stand — the Psalms
are literally his heart-sighings — the thoughts
and feelings that chased one another like
cloud-shadows over waving corn. Oh ! believe
me, the fault is not in God, but in ourselves.

Valdes and Ochino, 149

Since we admit that He is not only round
about us but within us, how is it that we
have so little perception of Him? Because
His grace does not operate in us. And why
does not His grace operate in us? Because,
in reality, we do not humbly, devoutly, and
earnestly desire it* Why do not we both
desire it and seek it ? Because we do not love
God with the whole heart and with all the
senses. Why not % Because we do not know
Him. . Why do not we know Him ? Because
we do not even know ourselves."

" All this is true and logical enough," said
Ochino ; " and brings us back to your starting-
point, that your first book was your own mind.
But that book cannot be read in the, dark.
Nor without the light of the Holy Spirit."

" Unquestionably not," said Valde's. " That
light enables me to read my own book. It

* Valdes. "Chain of Virtues and Vices." Vide Wiffen's
" Alfabeto Christiano."

150 The Due he f 5 of Trajetto.

makes plain and full of interest what was arid,
forbidding, and deeply disapjDointing. You
know that the Scriptures have helped me to
understand my own book. David and St. Paul
are nothing to us, in comparison with God and
Christ. In the Old Testament we read of a
God of vengeance, and a Lord of hosts ; for to
the Jews he exhibited himself but through
a glass darkly. But ive know him through
Christ, and, in seeing one, we see the other.
Oh, then, how is it Ave are insensible to such
love ? A man would give the whole world,
if he had it, to save the life of an only son :
God gave His own Son to save an ungrateful
world."

" That is a strong figure," said Ochino, with
emotion.

" And since He and His Son are one, in
a mystical manner which we cannot compre-
hend," pursued Valdds, " what is His giving
His Son for us, but, in other words, giving

V aides and Ochino. 151

himself? His alter ego. 'Greater love than
this hath no man, that he lay down his life for
his friends.' 'For scarcely for a righteous
man (even) will one die:— but God com-
mendeth His love towards us, in that, while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' Can
you conceive a nobler antithesis \ "

"Ah!" said Ochino, gladly extending his
arms. " I see it ! I embrace it !"

"Hold it fast, my brother. For on this
rock is built the church. He was delivered
(delivered up by man) for our sins, but was
raised, by God, for our justification. There-
fore, being justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Continue to hammer upon that, as you have
done, and are still doing. Did you note an
honourable woman who sate immediately
before you, this morning, with Vittoria Co-
lonna ? "

" Yes. She was very attentive."

152 T/ie Duchefs of Trajetto.

" She is Giulia, Duchess of Trajetto : one on
whom the pure gospel light has not yet shined.
I believe she is much under the influence of
Cardinal Ippolito : as much as the Marchioness
of Pescara is under that of Cardinal Pole.
Pernicious directors, both ! You must do
them all the good you can, while they are
under your ministiy. There is much that is
hopeful in the little circle of distinguished
women who are now drawn together here.
Isabella Manricha is far advanced in the
spiritual life, and will faithfully guide her
younger sisters along the narrow way. Speak
the truth to them boldly : the word of
God is not bound. And now the time is
come for our evening reading at Donna
Isabella's, and here comes Giulio Terenziano
to join us."

As he spoke, a slender, intellectual-looking
young man, with eyes full of spiritual light,
entered, whom he embraced as a younger

V aides and Ochino, 153

brother. This youth was afterwards a sufferer
for the truth.

Nothing was more remarkable in the fore-
going dialogue than the manner in which
Yaldes took the lead, though Ochino was a
churchman and he was not, and he was
Ochino's junior by twelve or fourteen years.
It is currently believed that Yaldes was at
this time secretary to the Spanish Viceroy of
Naples, Don Pedro de Toledo: he was cer-
tainly governor of the Hospital of Incurables.
His remarkable personal influence was exer-
cised both in conversation and by letters on
special subjects ; by meetings for the purpose
of reading and exposition, either at his Mends'
houses or in his own in Naples, or at Pausi-
lippo. Air. Wiffen tells us that some interest-
ing allusions in the " Dialogo de la Lengua"
oive an insight into his manner of reading and
discoursing with his friends.

" He held frequent intercourse with them at

154 ^he Duchefs of Trajetto.

his own residence in the city. His less divided
leisure was given to them at his country house,
situated in a garden, on the shore of the Bay
of Naples, near Chiaja. At this country house,
Valde's received on the Sunday a select number
of his most intimate friends ; and they passed
the day together in this manner. After break-
fasting and taking a few turns round the
garden, enjoying its beauty and the pleasant
prospect of the shores and purple ripples of
the bay, where the isle of Capri on one side
drew the eye to the luxurious mansion of
Tiberius, and Ischia and Procida rose in sight
on the other, they returned into the house,
when Valde's read some selected portion of the
Scriptures, and commented upon it, or some
divine ' Consideration' which had occupied his
thoughts during the week. . . . After this,
they discussed the subject together, or dis-
coursed on some other points which Valde's
himself brought forward, until the hour for

Valdes and Ochino.

dinner. After dinner, in the afternoon, when
the servants were dismissed to their own
amusements, his friends and not himself pro-
posed the subjects and led the conversation,
and he had to discuss them agreeably to their
desire. As they had been pleased to consecrate
the morning according to his wishes, in read-
ing ' The Book of the Soul,' or upon subjects
like his ' Divine Considerations,' he in return
devoted his acquirements to their gratification
on themes of their selection. Such was the
origin of the * Dialogo de la Lengua,' a
dialogue on the Spanish language, which occu-
pied seven or more sittings, and was in all
probability much more copious than the text
which has come down to us, and which fur-
nishes us with these particulars. At night-
fall, Valdes and his friends returned to the
city.

" The Sunday meetings may have continued
four or five years. These Sabbaths of studious

The Duchefs of Trajetto.

Christians, this exchange of subjects, this
interchange of thought between the proposers,
the day, the pure elevation of mind they
brought as it were with them, the situation,
the beauty of the country, the transparent
skies of a southern climate, the low murmurs
of the bay, would all be favourable to the
purpose of Valdes." *

The extreme beauty of this extract will
preclude the need of apology for its length,
especially as the general reader could not
otherwise have access to it ; for I believe only
a hundred copies for private circulation have
been printed of the work to which Mr. Wiffen
has affixed his delightful introduction.

" 0, evenings worthy of the gods ! " exclaimed
The Sabine bard. " 0, evenings, I reply,
1 ' More to be prized and coveted than yours,
As more illumined, and with nobler truths."

Cowper, ''The Task," book iv.

* Introduction to Wiffen's translation of the "Alfabeto
Christian o."

V aides and Ochino. 157

Verini has described the charms of Lorenzo's
farm at Poggio Cajano, and Politian has left
us a delightful description of his summer
evenings at Fiesole.

" When you are incommoded," says he,
" with the heat of the season in your retreat at
Careggi, you will perhaps think the shelter of
Fiesole not unworthy your notice. Seated
between the slopes of the mountain, we have
here water in abundance, and being constantly
refreshed with moderate winds, find little
inconvenience from the glare of the sun. As
you approach the house, it seems embosomed
in the wood ; but when you reach it, you find
it commands a full view of the city. But I
shall tempt you with other allurements. Wan-
dering beyond the limits of his own plantation,
Pico sometimes steals unexpectedly on my re-
tirement, and draws me from my shades to
partake of his supper. What kind of supper
that is, you well know ; sparing, indeed, but

i r8 The Buchefs of Trajetto.

neat, and rendered grateful by the charms of
his conversation."

Pico and Politian would doubtless be very
good company ; but not equal to Valdes and
Ochino.

,

Going to Law. 159

CHAPTER XII.

GOIXG TO LAW.

Giulia was in Naples, but she was neither
enjoying herself nor benefiting herself, as much
as she ought to have done. The Princess of
Sulmona, who stood in the double relation to
her of daughter-in-law and sister-in-law, and
who had once been her chosen companion and
bosom friend, had, since her second marriage,
been gradually estranged from her : and, from
time to time, the Duchess had received letters
from her in so altered a tone, that she might
have exclaimed — »

" Is all the friendship that we two have shared,
When we have chid the hasty-footed time
For parting us, — oh ! and is all forgot ? "

Firstly, a demand for a certain ewer and
chalice of silver, richly chased by Benvenuto,

160 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

which were heirlooms, and held by Gratia in
charge for her nephew and Isabella's son, the
little Vespasiano. On reading this missive, the
Duchess took the trouble to write her a lonof,
explanatory, and reproachful letter, reminding
her of things whereof Isabella ought not to
have needed reminding.

Letter the second, after a considerable pause,
took no notice of Giulia's answer, but enforced
attention to letter the first, making additional
claim to a large ruby ring and a string of
oriental pearls.

On reading this, the Duchess said : " She's
mad !" — burnt the letter, and did not answer it.

Letter the third was filled with the most
aggravating things that one woman could say
to another.

Giulia replied by desiring her instantly to
return a service of plate and several family
jewels which had been lent her on her mar-
riage.

Going to Law. 1 6 1

In answer to this, Giulia received a lawyer's
letter, telling her that her husband's will was
null and void, and threatening her with pro-
ceedings.

Fancy the state of the poor Duchess I She
received this letter just before she went, for the
first time, with Vittoria, to hear Ochino preach ;
and however attentive he might have thought
her, she was in fact thinking of the lawyer's
letter all the while, and writing imaginarv
letters to the Pope and the Emperor. For.
Giulia had overpowering allies ; and if her
sweet nature were sufficiently stirred to call
them to her succour, woe unto those who at-
tacked her ! This had been exemplified imme-
diately after the Duke's death, when his kins-
men, Ascanio Colonna and Xapoleone Orsini,'
taking advantage of her supposed helpless: .
laid claim to his estates. ITp in arms were the
Pojdc and the Emperor directly. The Pope
pronounced the will valid, and the Emperor

i6

T/ie Dv.chefs of ^trajetto.

j3ut her in possession of her estates. Yet,
now, here was the whole matter to go
over again, and with some one much nearer
and dearer ! Ginlia had a fit of crying ;
and the humid eyes and dejected mien which
Ochino and Yaldes attributed to her convic-
tions of sin were traceable to a much lower
source.

" How well dear Ochino laboured the point
of justification by faith ! " exclaimed Yittoria,
after their return from church. " Did you ever
hear it better demonstrated ? "

"To say the truth, dear Yittoria," replied
the Duchess, " I scarcely heard two words of it,
and do not remember one."

The Marchioness looked shocked ; but Giulia
' continued —

" Isabella threatens me with a law-suit, and
I am determined to write to the Pope about it."

" Oh, pray do not," cried Yittoria, " you are
always a great deal too violent. You use such

Going to Law. 163

extraordinarily strong measures when mild
ones would do."

" I, violent ? Why, that is the last thing I
am ! It is because I am unprotected that
people trample on me !"

" Trample ! O, my dear Giulia S "

" Why, only remember how Ascanio and
Napoleone came down upon me directly my
poor Duke was dead !"

" Yes, and only remember how you came
down upon them. You raised the whole
country about it. No one less than the Pope
and the Emperor would serve your turn."

" Well, and did not they say I was right %
and did not they take my part ? "

" Truly they did '. — but it does not follow
that they would do so again. Men are apt
to fly to the rescue, directly they think a
helpless woman is oppressed ; but if they
find out she is able and willing to fight
her own battles, they let her ! And indeed,

164 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

dear Giulia, it does not become a woman to
be pugnacious."

" Pugnacious ! " The word was highly offen-
sive, and the Duchess was deeply hurt. She
threw herself on a pile of cushions and began
to tear a nosegay to pieces, without saying a
word.

" Hear what St. Paul says," pursued Vittoria,
sitting down beside her, and turning over the
leaves of a little book.

" St. Paul knows nothing about it," muttered
the Duchess.

"There you are quite mistaken,'*' said Yit-
toria, still eagerly hunting up the passage,
"St. Paul knew something about everything,
for he was a great genius and an eminently
practical man, besides being a holy apostle.
This is what he says — 'Dare any of you,
having a matter against another, go to law
before the unjust, and not before the saints ? . .
I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is

Going to Law. 16

not a wise man among you 1 No ? Not one,
that shall be able to judge between his
brethren? But brother goeth to law with
brother, and that before the unbelievers ! Xow,
therefore, there is utterly a fault among you,
because ye go to law one with another. Why
do ye not rather take wrong 1 Why do not ye
rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded ? ' '

"That is very fine for St. Paul to say," said
Giulia. " I wonder how he would have liked
it himself."

" Giulia ! you must not say such things as
that. It is wicked."

" Why, to hear you talk, one would think it
was I who wanted to go to law with Isabella ;
whereas, it is Isabella who wants to go to law
with me ! "

And Giulia began to cry.

" Nobody is so unfortunate as I," said she.

" I pity you," said Yittoria, " but I own I
think you are blameworthy."

t 6 6 TheDucheft of Trajetto.

"In what?"
" In your spirit."

" Why, what would you do in my place ? "
" I would not write to the Pope."
" That's what you would not do. What
would you do ? "

" Settle it by amicable agreement."
" But Isabella will not be amicable \ "
" If she will not, that is her fault."
" Certainly ! And so it is her fault."
" "Well, my dear Giulia, I would not trouble
myself so for all the pearls and diamonds in
the world. What are they, but so much dust ?
If you throw them into a crucible, they will
lose all their beauty, and — "

"So should I, if you put rue into a crucible,"
said Giulia, beginning to laugh ; and her own
little joke did more to make her see the bright
side of things than all her cousin's wise saws.

" I know what I'll do," said she. " I'll write
to Ferrante."

Going to Law. 167

_

Ferrante was her only surviving brother.

" Ah, that is a good thought/' said Vittoria.
" He will be sure to help you."

So the Duchess wrote to Don Ferrante ; and
when Don Ferrante's answer came, which was
not within a fortnight, he told her he was sorry
to find she was embroiling herself again with
her husband's relations ; a contentious spirit
was worse than a continual dropping : he feared
she had had a little too much prosperity and
petting : misfortunes were the lot of all, and
it was vain to repine because a rose-leaf was
doubled on our couch, &c., &c, &c. Think
how many people were a great deal worse off,
&c.3 &c., &e.

Clearly, there was no comfort to be had from
Don Ferrante. So Giulia, getting another
aggravating letter from Isabella, consulted the
best lawyers in Naples ; who advised her not
to answer her, but to leave them to conduct
the correspondence (for a consideration).

1 68 the Duchefs of Trajetto.

Then came so much parry and thrust, and
tergiversation, and objurgation, and recrimina-
tion, that poor Giulia became seriously ill.
Then the Marchioness of Pescara was very
kind to her, and sat by her all day, and would
have done so all night, but she fidgeted her to
death, by what Giulia called preaching, though
Vittoria only spoke what she meant for a word
in season ; and Giulia longed to tell her she
would rather be nursed by her own maids.

" Ah, Leila \ " said Cynthia, as she knelt,
fanning her mistress, " I wish we were all back
at Fondi."

"Why do you wish that, Cynthia ?"

'•'You would be better there, Leila. You
would be under the care of Bar Hhasdai."

" Bar Hhasdai has no cure for worry, Cyn-
thia/'

" I think you would be better there, Leila."

" Cynthia ! do you care for me ? do you love
me?"

Gcing to Law. 169

Cynthia replied by- repeatedly kissing the
hem of the Duchess's garment.

f; Ah, it is all very well to make that dumb
show ; but do you really love me ? "

li Yes, Leila, I love you. "When the hound
flew at me, you were bathed in my blood, and
did not mind."'

"Of course, poor girl, I could not help
pitying you. By the bye, Cynthia — would
you do anything that would make me
better ? "

" Try me, Leila.''

" Well then, Cynthia— do tell me— frankly,
as a friend — I'll forget I am your mistress — I
will not punish you. Did you have any com-
munication with Barbarossa ? "

Cynthia's face changed. " Oh, Leila ! how
can you ask ? "

i: Well then, say no ! It is so easily spoken."

" It is not easy."

" Easy or difficult, you must say."

7°

The Duchejs of TrajettG,

Cynthia's obstinate look came on, which
showed the case to be hopeless.

" Oh, very well, Cynthia ; then you do not
love me, that is all.'"' And the Duchess turned
her face away.

" I do love you, Leila/'

" Xo, I don't believe you."

Cynthia took her hand and wetted it with
tears. The Duchess drew it away.

" I wish you would kill me, Leila."

wi Don't tell such stories, Cynthia. You know
it is not my nature to kill people ; though there
were persons wicked enough to say I had killed
poor ]\Iuza, after cutting out his tongue, which
you know he had lost before he ever came to
me."

" I know it, Leila."

" Muza was perhaps sent back as a spy ;
though he pretended he had escaped. There
are so many wicked people in the world
that I do not know who to trust — I

Going to Law. x7

believe I shall end by distrusting every-
body."

" Oh no, Leila. Do not 1 "

"Why, how can I trust you? You have
eaten of my bread and drank of my cup these
two years, and you are no more of us than if
you were a stone."

" I love my own people, I own," said Cyn-
thia. " And so would you love yours, if you
were exiled from them."

"I love mine without being exiled from
them."

"But you would find you loved them still
more if you were sold into slavery. '

" If Barbarossa had taken me to Constanti-
nople ! Well, I believe I should. There is
no making anything of you, Cynthia. You
are a riddle. I believe I could love you if
you were not so close. But you shut yourself
up like a hedgehog. Sing me one of your
Moorish songs — that one about Zelinda and

172 'The DucJiefs of Trajetto.

Ganzul. PerhajDS you may quiet my poor
nerves."

So Cynthia immediately began a long, wail-
ing ballad, the Spanish version of which
begins : —

' ' En el tienipo que Zelinda
Cerro ayrada la ventana
A la disculpa, a los zelos
Que il Moro Ganzul le dava."

Before she reached the happy reconciliation
of Ganzul and Zelinda, the Duchess was asleep.

The Cardinal Temtted. 173

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CARDINAL TEMPTED.

How fared it with Cardinal Ippolito, after
lie left Fondi ? In a general way we may be
pretty sure that he fared sumptuously every
day, clothed in purple and fine linen ; that he
entertained a constant succession of noble,
learned, witty, and intellectual guests ; that
a certain portion of broken victuals from his
table was daily given to beggars full of sores
at his gate ; that he read the Greek and Latin
poets a good deal more than the Old and New
Testament ; that he 1 whatever pleased

him in the way of intaglios, cameos, mosaics,
ivory carvings, rare manuscripts., and paintings,
— out of the revenues of the Church ; that he
now and then gave a ring, chain, or purse of
gold to some poor author or artist, — out of the

174 ¥he Duchefs of Trajetto.

revenues of the Church ; that he took part in
high solemnities, and looked and acted his
part well when relics were to be exhibited, or
pontifical mass performed, or martyrs to be
canonised.

Did he believe in them, think you 1 Did he
believe in " the most holy cross," " the most
holy visage," the " sacred spear " % I very
much doubt the poor Cardinal's faith in much
holier things than these. He would have been
very glad to possess the faith of that barefooted
little contadina with the silver dagger in her
hair, whom he saw pressing her lips so un-
doubtingiy and affectionately to a dirty little
box held by a still dirtier friar. To him it was
all an extremely well got-up scene ; interesting
in an artistic point of view ; painfully unreal
whenever he came to think of it. He liked
the thrilling music, the air heavy with incense,
the various costumes and draperies, the heaj:>s
of church plate, the shrines encrusted with

The Cardinal Tempted. i 7 5

gems, the portraits of famous beauties with
haloes and palms ; but oh ! they did not even
touch his feelings ; and as for his thoughts,
his thoughts ! —

It seemed to him quite as hard to believe
that the bread and wine on the altar were
what they purported to be, as that the imprint
of the Redeemer's face was stamped on the
kerchief of St. Veronica. Sometimes he was
ready to persuade himself he blindly believed
all ; at other times, he was too sadly sure he
believed in nothing. Nothing but death ! —
and it was almost death to think of it. " Let
lis eat and drink, for to-morrow we die ! "

Well, but there was his old uncle, the Pope,
who had a good deal more on his conscience
than he had, and must be a good deal nearer
that catastrophe than he was, he was so much
older ! — and how comfortably he took it all ! —
washing the pilgrims' feet, blessing the horses,
borne aloft in that tottering seat between the

176 The Duchefs ofTrajetlo.

two great fans of ostrich feathers, stretching
out his fingers in continual benediction — the
king — the vice-God of the hour — forgiving the
sins of all the world — he seemed to get through
it all very well —

But, just as the Cardinal had reached this
]3oint, Pope Clement died — and how did the
people show their sense of his holiness? He
died on the 26th of September, 1534 ; just two
months after the sack of Fondi ; and during
the period between his decease and the elec-
tion of a successor, the contempt and hatred
of the Eomans showed themselves by the
most outrageous insults to his memory. Night
after night, his bier was broken and defaced.
On one occasion his body was actually torn
from its grave-clothes, and found in the morn-
ing transfixed with a sword. And there were
those who scrupled not to say it would have
been dragged through the streets with a hook,
but for respect for Cardinal Ippolito.

The Cardinal Tempted. i

All this was very terrible for Ippolito. Death,
in all its grisly horrors, and without any of its

holy and softening associations, was brought
before him whether he would or no ; with no
sacrament of tears and blessings, no cherished
memories of the last look, the last sigh ; no
death-bed sanctities.

And then the new Pope, Paul the Third,
was a Farnese. The Medici party had gone
out, the Farnese party had come in ; and
Ippolito was looked on as an enviable pluralist,
whose benefices the new Pope's friends would
gladly share. Ippolito knew it was so, because
it must be so : it would not be Roman human
nature if it had been otherwise. And in the
night, he would lie awake and think, " What a
juggle, and a struggle, and a farce it all is ! —
What a seeming, and a sham ! — Why did I
ever accept this detestable hat ? Why should
I have been put off with it ? Why should
not I have been Grand Duke of Florence

i y S The Duchefs of Trajetto.

instead of Alessandro ? I am of the elder
branch, and any way I would have played my
part better. O, Giulia, why would not you
have me ? It would have been better for both
of us !" And he got into the way of fancying
that all his faults were her fault.

He was just in that state that he lay open
to any temptation. And temptation is never

lono- comino- when we are in that case. He

© ©'

was ready for anything that seemed to promise
to put him in Alessandro's place ; and there
was a large body of banished Florentines, or
fijorusciti as they were commonly called, who
burned to dethrone the tyrant and abolish
tyranny. Their views were larger and more
patriotic than Ippolito's, for he only wished to
transfer his cousin's power to himself: how-
ever, Felippo Strozzi, the richest and most
crafty citizen in Florence, knew enough of both
parties to think he could make them serve his
own purposes.

The Cardinal Tempted.

Felippo Strozzi therefore opened his mind
to Ippolito on the subject of getting rid of
Alessandro, and found it easier to do than it
might have been, because Ippolito was air
a guilty man concerning his cousin — he had
already been trying to induce the Archb:-

I Earseilles to assassinate him. What church-
men : — That scheme had not answered, but
his part was taken now ; with a colour of
patriotism in it ; for he must keep his -
views out of sight of the fworuscibi, or they
would have nothing to say to him.

The simplest way appeared to be t _
Charles the Fifth to change the government of
Florence by an act of his sovereign will ; and
then, no assassination need be in question.

This appeared so bright an idea to the
Cardinal, that, without troubling himself to
take counsel with his confederates, he sent a
trusty messenger on his own account to the
Emperor, to lay such a statement before him

i So The Duchefs of Trajetto.

as would, lie hoped, convice liim of the justice
and expediency of subverting Alessandro's
government. But alas, the messenger brought
back word that the Emperor would have
nothing to say to it ; the Cardinal had nothing
to expect from him.

On this, Ippolito had recourse to his bad
adviser, Strozzi, and put it to him —

" What say you \ Shall I, under these cir-
cumstances, please the Emperor by making up
matters with Alessandro, and accept the eccle-
siastical preferments which have, in that case,
been offered me \ "

" Please yourself," says Felippo, with his
cynical smile. " I wouldn't, if I were you, but
that's not my affair. Such a peace-making
would doubtless be very acceptable to the
Duke, as relieving him of a dangerous enemy ;
but it would be both injurious and disgrace-
ful to yourself. At least, that's the way I
take it."

The Cardinal Tempted. i8t

" Here am I all at sea again, then/' said the
Cardinal.

" You talk of a reconciliation as if it could
really be made," pursued Strozzi ; " whereas it
would assuredly come to nothing : because such
matters have already passed between you as
that Alessandro would never really trust 3-011 ;
and this feeling on his part would make you,
or ought to make you, equally distrustful of
him. So that you never could live safely in
Florence as long as he was in power there.
And as to the appanages he has promised you,
depend upon it, that as soon as his alliance
with the Emperor was secured he would snap
his fingers at you, and you might go whistle
for them ! "

" If you think Mat— " said Ippolito.

"I do think that, I promise you," said
Felippo Strozzi. "I don't want to make
differences between relations, not I; but if
you ask me for my plain opinion, there you

1 82 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

have it. He would take care to gain the ear
of the Emperor so as that you should never
have one of those benefices, for his cue will
be to keep you down as much as he can."

" Nay then — " said the Cardinal.

" Besides," continued Strozzi, " such a recon-
ciliation would make you despicable in the
sight of all the world ; for every one knows
your opinion of Alessanclro, and would be quite
aware that nothing but mere hope of profit
could have brought you to make it up with
him — they would never believe in any more
honourable motive."

" Then again — " resumed he, seeing that
Ippolito was in a painful state of vacillation,
"by adopting a more spirited line of action,
and uniting yourself with the fuorusciti, you
would gain immortal honour and glory as the
deliverer and true father of your country, and
would see your arras put up all over the
city!"

The Cardinal Tempted. J 83

This last bait was too much for Ippolito to

resist. His eye kindled, and he half started
from his seat.

'•And this would even be your wisest
course of action/' pursued his cunning tempter,
"should you feel inclined to make your-
self absolute master of the state instead of
liberating it, inasmuch as it would obtain
such popularity for you in the first instance.
All the old friends of your house are so
disgusted and alienated by the conduct of
Alessandro, that they would gladly transfer
their allegiance to you. And I will under-
take, if you will only be prudent, to make
the fuorusciti espouse your cause. With the
French money and favour which my influence
can secure to you, you may be certain of
success

Ippolito's breast heaved. It seemed " a good
plot — an excellent plot"— though a voice in
his heart made its stifled accents heard against

184 The Buchefs of Trajetto.

it. And so, in evil hour, the decision was
made ; and he became the tool of this wicked
man, who designed, through him, to wreak his
own vengeance on Alessandro.

But a bird of the air carried the matter to
the Grand Duke ; else how should he have
heard of it % He, ready enough to fight
conspirators with their own weapons, com-
municated secretly with Ippolito's steward,
Giovan Andrea di Borgho San Sepolcro, and
covenanted with him to do a certain deed for
a certain sum of money.

Meantime, Strozzi negotiated with the leaders
of the faorusciti, who, knowing his character
for craft and treachery, were not at all ready
to meet him half way, and sometimes drove
him to such desperation with their answers to
his advances that he was almost minded to
throw up conspiracy altogether, and retire upon
his enormous fortune to Venice, and live quietly
like an honest man. "Well if he had !

The Cardinal Tempted. 1S5

The Cardinal, meantime, hearing that the

Emperor was fitting out an expedition to
Tunis, resolved to follow him thither, accom-
panied by certain of the fiwrusciti, and lay
his complaints before him in person.

No sooner had he decided on this step than
he hastened his preparations for departure.
He loved action and the bruit of amis : he
would have made a pretty good soldier : pro-
bably a noted commander. To supply himself
with the necessary funds, he broke up and
sold aH his plate, and borrowed ten thousand
ducats of Felippo Strozzi. Having hired
twenty horses for his personal attendants
and four Florentines who were to accompany
him, he started from Home at the latter end
of July, 1535, en route for the little town of
Itri, near Fondi, where he purposed await-
ing the vessel in which he was to embark at

Gaeta.

The reason he meant to wait at Itri rather

1 86 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

than Gaeta was that he believed Giulia to be
at Foncli — in which he was mistaken.

As he was in the act of mounting his beau-
tiful mare, she fell beneath ^ira, without any
apparent reason ; which was afterwards looked
back on as an evil omen.

What befel Barbaroja. 187

CHAPTER XIV.

WHAT BEFEL BARBAROSSA.

The Emperor diaries the Fifth had been
very indignant when he heard of the sack of
Fondi, and the attempt to seize the Duchess.
Some months afterwards, when Muley Hassan,
whom Barbarossa had driven from Tunis,
appealed to him for assistance, Charles, who
was ambitious of military renown, resolved at
once to rid the coast of a dangerous invader,
and avenge an injured prince, by heading an
expedition against Hayraddm.

The united strength of his dominions was
therefore called out upon this enterprise, which
he intended to increase his already brilliant
reputation. As the redresser of wrongs, his
cause was popular, and drew on him the
applause of Christendom. A Flemish fleet

iSS

The JDuchefs of Trajetto.

conveyed his troops from the Low Countries ;
the galleys of Naples were loaded with the
Italian auxiliaries, and the Emperor himself
embarked at Barcelona with the flower of
his Spanish nobility, and considerable rein-
forcements from Portugal. Andrea Doria
commanded the Genoese galleys, and the
Knights of Malta equipped a small but power-
ful squadron, and hastened to the rendezvous
at Cagiiari.

All this mighty armament to hunt down a
Lesbian pirate, the son of an obscure potter !

Hayraddin was, however, no contemptible
foe. Ambitious and relentless, a skilful and a
generous chief, his lavish bounties among his
partizans made them his blind adherents :
while his wondrous versatility had enabled
him to ingratiate himself with the Sultan and
his Vizier. It was therefore to be war to the
knife between the Crescent and the Cross.

As soon as Barbarossa heard of the Emperor's

What befel Barbarojfa. 1S9

formidable preparations, lie called in all his
corsairs from their different stations, drew
from Algiers what forces could be spared,
summoned Moors and Arabs from all quarters
to his standard, and inflamed their fanaticism
by assuring them he was embarking in a holy
war.

Twenty thousand horse and a considerable
bodv of foot answered his summons, and drew
together before Tunis. Hayraddin knew, how-
ever, that his greatest dependence must be on
his Turkish troops, who were armed and dis-
ciplined in the European manner. He there-
fore threw six thousand of them, under Sinan,
the renegade Jew, into the fortress of Goletta
commanding the bay of Tunis ; which the
Emperor immediately invested.

Three separate storming parties attacked
the fort ; Sinan raged like a lion at bay :
frequent sallies were made by his garrison,
while the Moors and Arabs made diversions.

190 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

But nothing could withstand the fury of the
assailants ; and a breach soon appeared in
the walls of the fortress, which the Emperor
pointed out to Muley Hassan.

" Behold," said he, " the gate through which
you may re-enter your kingdom ! "

With the Goletta, Barbarossa's fleet fell into
the Emperor's hands ; and he was driven to
extremities. Having strongly entrenched him-
self within the city, he called his chiefs to a
council of war, and proposed to them, that
before sallying out to decide their fate in
battle, they should massacre ten thousand
Christians whom he had shut up in the
citadel.

Even his pirate chiefs were staggered at this
proposal ; and Barbarossa, seeing they would
not support him in it, yielded the point with
a gesture of disgust at their want of hardi-
hood. Charles and his chivalry were meanwhile
painfully toiling, under a blazing African sun,

What befel Barbaroja. 191

across the burning sands which encom] 3&

Tunis, without so much as a drop of water
to cool their tonga

tf 1 Ion genl I _ :. . 1 .-! ne accolta,
2: n muro cinto di profonda foss .
N d gran torrente o monte alpestre e folta
5 Iva, che '1 loro viaggi r] ssa."

La /.

Hayraddin, sallying out upon them with
his best troops made a desperate onset, but
was so vigorously repulsed that his fin
surged back to the city, and himself was

dstibly borne along with them like a straw
on the tide.

Meanwhile, a pale girl, a Christian slave,
who had been within earshot of the council,
carried the report of Barb::.: ss 's ferocious
proposal to the keepers of the citadel. They
were revolted at his cruelty, and her entreaties,
backed by the clamours of the despairing
wretches in their charge, prevailed on them to
release the Christian prisoners and strike off

192 The Duchefs cf Trajetto.

their fetters. Forth came Tebaldo Adirnari,
the pride of Fondi : forth came many a
grey-haired senator, illustrious cavalier, and
venerable hidalgo, some in their full strength,
others wasted with long captivity, but nerved
at this moment to strike a blow for freedom.
Unarmed as they were, they flung themselves
on the surprised guard, and turned the
artillery of the fort against Barbarossa
himself as he and his discomfited troops
poured back in disorderly retreat. 0, fell
rage and despair of the defeated pirate, late
the sovereign of two kingdoms, as he now
heard Christian war-cries defying him from
his own battlements '. gnashing his teeth,
and cursing the comrades whose humanity
compelled him to spare those who were now
manning the walls, he sought safety in
ignominious and precipitate flight.

Then what a cheer arose, as the Christians
saw the turbans in retreat, and themselves

What bejel Barbarcjfa. I 93

masters of the city ! The Emperor was first
made aware of the turn affairs had taken,
by the arrival of deputies from Tunis, who
brought him the keys, and piteously besought
him to check the violence of his troops. In
vain ! They were already sacking the city.
killing and plundering without mercy ; and
thirty thousand defenceless people were the
victims of that day, while ten thousand more
were earned away as slaves.

It is said that Charles lamented tins dread-
ful slaughter, and that he declared the only
result of his victory which gave him any satis-
faction was his reception by the ten thousand
Christian captives, who fell at his feet, blessing
him as their deliverer. In all, he freed twenty
thousand slaves, whom he sent, clothed at his
own expense, to their own homes ; and they.
as mav well be supposed, made Europe ring
with their praises of his goodness and muni-
ficence. It was a bright dav for Fondi when

194 The Due kefs of Trajetto.

Tebaldo Adimari returned ! Though the
Duchess was at Naples, and though Isaura
was in her train, he had seen them both on
his way home, and ratified his vows of love
and constancy. The Duchess had promised to
smile on their espousals, which were shortly
to take place ; and meanwhile his Mends and
relations got up a festa to welcome him, and
there was church-going and bell-ringing, and
eating and drinking, and dancing and singing,
without any drunkenness, stabbing, or even
quarrelling.

If such was the public joy in a little town
of four thousand people at the return of a
young fellow of no mark or likelihood what-
ever, except that he was comely, merry, brave,
ingenuous, with a good word for everybody
and with everybody's good word, — it may be
supposed what a stir the Emperor's arrival
at Naples made, and how that pleasure-loving
capital nearly exhausted itself in demonstra-

What befel Barbarojfa. 195

lions of welcome. The mole, when he landed,
was so crowded, that you may be sure a grain
of millet thrown upon it would not have found
room to reach the ground Nothing was to be
heard but bell-ringing, acclamations, and the
thundering of cannon ; nothing to be seen but
orold, velvet, silk, and brocade, festoons of
flowers, triumphal arches, processions, deputa-
tions, triumphal cars, prancing steeds, waving
plumes, and bronzed cavaliers looking up at
the balconies of fair women waving their
handkerchiefs, among whom, rely on it, were
Vittoria Colonna and Giulia Gonzaga.

Charles, with his Spanish gravity ever
uppermost, took it all very soberly ; heard
what people had to say. enjoyed it in his way.
said very little himself, and in the proverb
style ; went to the cathedral, heard Fra Bernar-
dino Ochino preach, and afterwards observed,
composedly. " That man would make the
stones weep !M — his own eyes being quite dry

o 2

196 The JDtichefs of Trajetto.

all the while. Also if anything inexpressibly
funny were said, he remarked, " How very
diverting ! " but did not smile. He was best
at business, and he entered upon Giulia's
affairs.

More about the Cardinal. 197

CHAPTER XV.

MORE ABOUT THE CARDINAL.

Itri, the birthplace of the notorious Fra
Diavolo, is a regular robber's-nest, pictu-
resquely placed on the side of a lofty hill,
and crested by a ruined castle.

In Ippolito de' Medici's time the castle was
not ruined ; and there was also a monastery,
where he and his attendants were suitably
entertained.

On the afternoon of the 2nd of August, after
a meal which we should call luncheon, but
which the early habits of those days distin-
guished as dinner, — succeeded by a moderate
siesta, — the courtyard was all alive with
preparations for a gallant riding-party, in the
full heat and glare of the day. Groups of
cowled and bare-headed monks stood curiously

198 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

about, admiring the Cardinal's beautiful mare ;
and groups, too, of robber-like, shaggy-looking
men, and bright-eyed women and girls with
golden bodkins in their hair, hung about the
gates and passed their comments on the
cortege. The Cardinal came forth, talking to
the Prior, whose pale, attenuated face and
hollow eves formed a notable contrast to the
vivid colouring of his own healthy, well-fed
countenance. He was within an ace of losing
his good looks from too much eating and
drinking. In dress, the Cardinal was superb,
with a touch of the church militant. A smile
was on his lip as he patted his mare and
examined her trappings, saying,

" She will nut serve me that sorry trick
again, I hope."

" Fear not, my Lord Cardinal." said his
groom ; and he threw himself into the saddle.
The Florentines also mounted their horses.

At this moment, Piero Strozzi stepped for-

More about the Cardinal. 199

ward, saying, " This, from my father," with
a meaning smile ; and gave him a billet.

This Piero was son of Felippo, and had
something of the same cold, sly look.

The billet only contained these words : k" All
2oes well." The Cardinal read it with a gay
smile, and tossed it back to Strozzi.

" Good news to start with," said he to his
companions, as they rode out of the yard.

" The sun can scarce be hotter in Africa
than it is here to-day, I think." said Donati,
one of the jfhwrusciti.

" Not a whit too hot for me ; I enjoy it,"
said the Cardinal. "And the road is in our
favour, for it is all down-hill."

" Facile descensus" said Capponi. " What
a vibrating haze ! "

" We shall enjoy the shade and the coolness
at Fondi," said Ippolito. " You know I have
undertaken to show you the fairest lady in
Italy/'

200 The Due kefs of Trajetto.

"And I maintain, beforehand, that she
cannot be so fair as the Marchesana .del
Vasto," said Donati.

" Allowing for difference of years, you
mean," said Capponi. " The Duchess is a
little past her prime."

" No such thing," said Ippolito quickly ;
and he used the spur, though there was no
need. The mare sprang forward ; the others
were obliged to quicken their pace, and they
had ridden a mile or two before another word
was spoken.

Then the Cardinal slackened his speed, and
began to talk of matters quite different ; of
the brilliant African campaign ; of the likeli-
hood of Muley Hassan holding his own, now
he was reinstated ; of the probable movements
of Barbarossa ; of the glut of Moorish slaves
in the market, and so forth.

Arrived at Fondi, the Cardinal was pre-
paring to alight, when the Duchess's grey-

More about the Cardinal. 201

haired seneschal came forward and announced
the mortifying intelligence that his lady was
from home.

It may be matter of surprise that the
Cardinal should not have been apprised of her
absence at Itri ; but, in fact, he had learnt
from what he had considered good authority,
that she was to return to Fondi a little before
this time, so that he had made sure of finding
her at her castle.

His chagrin was extreme ; not only because
he had counted much on this visit, and had
now no hope of seeing her before he sailed,
but because he had given out to his com-
panions that he possessed such perfect know-
ledge of her movements and such security of
a cordial reception, that he was now open to
their raillery, whether or no they spared it.

The seneschal, who knew him well, respect-
fully besought him to partake of such poor
refreshment as the castle afforded ; but the

202 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

Cardinal was vexed, and rode off again, without
compassion for man or beast.

The Florentines looked at one another and
shrugged their shoulders, but were too wise
to remonstrate. They followed him, panting,
across the steaming plain, where groups of
cream-coloured oxen, cropping the rank her-
bage, looked up at them with dream}', won-
dering eyes. When they reached the covert
of cypress, poplar, and gnarled old olives, they
loitered dangerously in the shade ; and then,
when well chilled, spurred on again, makino-
themselves and their horses hotter than ever.
And of course, as there was a descent all the
way going, there was an ascent all the way
back.

Arrived at Itri, the Cardinal, throwing him-
self from his horse, called loudly for iced water.

" My lord, you are very hot," said Giovanni
Andrea, with seeming kindness. " Let me
prevail on your Eminence to take this broth

More about the Cardinal. 203

instead. It will be safer, and will repair your
strength."

The Cardinal took the broth, which was
temptingly seasoned, and turned away with a
sigh of relief. It was the early supper-hour,
and the tables were already spread in the
vaulted refectory, with abundance of better
cheer than the Prior's larder usually afforded,
some of which had been brought by his
illustrious guest. And soon the hungry
visitors took their places, and a long Latin
grace was said, and the first course of
confetti was served ; and then the trencher
of each man was filled with a large piece of
meat that had been stewed with almonds and

sugar.

And while this was being disposed of, the
Cardinal's servants and rubicund lay-brothers
covered the table with dishes of boiled meat,
fowls, small birds, kids, wild boar, and other
viands. And after this course, another was to

204 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

succeed, of tarts and cakes covered with spun
sugar.

But before the banquet reached this stage,
the Cardinal, who had scarcely spoken since he
sat down to table, and who had frequently
changed colour, suddenly exclaimed —

" Take me hence — I am strangely ill ! "■

Every eye was upon him in a moment —
many started from their seats — one or two
noted gourmands feigned deafness, and helped
themselves to the best. Bernardino Salviati,
the Cardinal's personal attendant, caught him
in his arms.

" Lean on me, my Lord Cardinal," said he.
" We will bear you to your chamber."

" Treachery, treachery, Salviati ! " murmured
the Cardinal, almost inarticulately. " I am
poisoned."

Giovanni Andrea, his other supporter,
making believe to wipe the clammy dew
from his face, held the handkerchief over

More about the Cardinal 20

" his mouth, so as to muffle his voice. Above
it glared the Cardinal at him fiercely.

" Stand back !" said Salviati to him, roughly.

" My Lord Cardinal is delirious, he raves,"
said Giovanni Andrea, shrinking away.

" Prior 1 don't let that man come near me,"
said Ippolito, faintly.

The Prior, with solicitude, bent his ear
to his lips, but only saw them move. The
next instant they were contorted with a
spasm.

By this time, they had carried him to
his bed-room, which, though the best guest-
chamber of the monastery, was furnished with
ascetic plainness ; a crucifix, a benitier, and a
wooden pallet, comprising most of its move-
ables, the meagreness of which contrasted
strangely enough with the crimson satin
cushions and mattresses the Cardinal had
brought with him, and which belonged to his
horse-litter.

2o6 'The Duchefs of Trajetto.

" Air ! air ! " he said, feebly, as his friends
pressed round him.

" It will be well, I think, for all of you to
leave the chamber," said the Prior, " except
Salviati, Brother Marco, and myself. The
Cardinal is in a high fever — I will open a
vein for him."

" Not on your life," gasped Ippolito.

Meanwhile, all retired from the room except
those whom the Prior had named.

" Marsh miasma, no doubt," said Donati, as
he returned to the refectory. " There was a
pestiferous vapour on the marshes to-day."

"And he would ride so fast," said Capponi,
resuming his seat at table. " For my part, I
wonder we are not ill too. I feel quite spent,
and want something solid. I dare say a
good night's rest will set him up again. He
is of a full habit, like many of the Medici :
it does not do for them to over-heat them-
selves. He takes everything too violently.

More about the Cardinal. 207

What excellent beccaficoes ! I prefer, however,
thrushes stuffed with bergamot>."

While these two were composedly resuming
their repast, there were others who did not
even sit down to table, but stood apart in a
little knot, anxiously debating whether the
Cardinal had or had not exclaimed.
" Alii ! tradimento ! " —

Anxious looks were cast towards the
door ; and once or twice an envoy was
despatched to the sick room. The first of
these came back with disturbed aspect,
saying,

" His Eminence positively refuses to be
bled, and the Prior is at his wit's end."

" What a pity ! " said Strozzi. " There is
no finer remedy."

" If it were any one else.*' pursued the first,
" the Prior might take the matter into his
own hands ; but 'tis ticklish meddling with
a Cardinal."

2o8 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

" Especially when that Cardinal's a Medici,"
said young Strozzi, with his father's unpleasant
smile, " I'll go and see to it myself."

Presently Strozzi returned, saying myste-
riously,

'A courier is instantly to be despatched
to the Pope, to beg of him a certain oil he
possesses, known to be a sure antidote to all
poison."

" Poison ! " repeated they all.

"Can it be so?" said Capponi, wiping his
lips, and rising from table. " This ought to
be looked to."

" Nay, I say not that it is so, I only say
that he thinks so," replied Strozzi. "At all
events, I'm going instantly to despatch a
messenger."

" Sad, sirs, sad ! " said Capponi, looking his
companions in the face, as Strozzi passed out.

" Nay, I expect not that it will turn out
anything serious," said Donati.

More about the Cardinal. 209

" The Strozzi are tender on the subject of
poison," observed Messer Giunigi, the fourth
Florentine, under his breath, " since the death
of Madonna Luisa."

" Hush, sir, that touches me nearly too,"
gravely said Capponi, who was of kin to
Madonna Luisa' s husband.

Here the Prior came forth, very irate.

•• The Cardinal will none of my assist-
ance," said he, " and yet I have been held
to know something. He is out of his
head, and yet exacts obedience as if he
were himself. Not content with obstinately
refusing to lose blood, which would reduce
the fever at once, and leave him as cool
as a cucumber, he insists that a courier
on a fleet horse shall instantly be des-
patched to Fondi for a certain Jew phy-
sician, named Bar Hhasdai, in whom he
has more faith than in all the Christian
leeches in Italy. The Jew hath never been

2io The Due kefs of Trajetto.

baptised, therefore I cannot consent to send
for him."

" Xay, but," said Donati, solicitously, " if
the Cardinal himself desires him, I see not
how you are exonerated from having him,
baptised, or otherwise."

" Send for him yourself, then," said the
Prior ; " you have plenty of your own people."

" That will I readily," said Donati, and he
left the refectory for that purpose.

Those who remained behind, discussed the
chances of the Pope's sovereign remedy arriv-
ing in time to be of use. and talked over the
present political aspect of affairs in Pome,
Florence, and Bologna ; and of the various
deaths of the Medici — which was almost as
dreary a subject as their lives.

Meanwhile, there lay the poor Cardinal on
his crimson satin mattresses, with his once
ruddy, handsome face, now pale as ashes,
pressed against a crimson satin pillow fringed

More about the Cardinal

21 I

with gold— nothing white, nothing cool and
comfortable about him— there he lay, alter-
nately flushing and chilling, torn with pain
and languishing with sickness and faintness
— and all the while ideas were rushing
through his distracted head like clouds across
a racking sky; and the one predominant
thought was, "Treachery! treachery!" Now,
he who had conspired, knew what it was to
be conspired against. Oh ! what a lono- lono-
night ! He scarcely knew or cared that
people from time to time looked in on him,
.stooped over him to hear if he breathed,
touched his heart, his wrist, drew the coverlet
closer over him, and went away. He scarcelv
knew or cared whether many were around him
or only the faithful Salviati. His thoughts were
following a fleet horse tearing along the road
to Fondi, and striking sparks as it clattered
down the lava paved street. Then he seemed
to see the yellow-faced Jew, in a red nio-ht-

P 2

212 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

cap, peering forth from one of the high,
ungflazed windows, as the courier shouted
out his name — and behind him that Hebrew
youth, whether son or acolyte, whom the
Cardinal had seen at his door in passing, only
a few hours before, with his pale, delicate
face, and long, spiral curls, and look of
sadness and submission. How singular that
that face, only once seen, and seen for a
moment, should have stereotyped itself on
his mind as the type of Isaac about to be
sacrificed ! — and now he seemed to see him
collecting medicines, while the old Jew hastily
threw on his furred gaberdine and came down
to the door.

A din of wild church music seemed to come
through the air, and to wax insufferably loud,
and then die wailing away like a requiem over
the Pontine marshes. And then, wild shouts
of " Palle ! palle ! " and citizens, half-dressed
and half-armed, rushing through streets, and

More about the Cardinal. 213

some of them crying " Liberty ! liberty at
last ! " And then there was an awful, crushing
struggle at a cathedral door ; and partisans
were rallying round some one who was being
borne into the sacristy ; and blood was flowing
and swords were clashing, and all the while
an old pontiff at the altar, who seemed charmed
into stone, was holding aloft the consecrated
wafer, and the little tinkling bell was per-
petually ringing till its shrillness seemed as
if it would crack the tympanum of his ears :
and sweet childish voices were singing : —

" Et in terra pax ! hominibus bonse voluntatis ! "*

Then all melted away, and he was aware of a
lonsr, long suite of marble halls, their silk and
gilding covered with dust ; and of an old, old
man with hoary hair borne through them
in the arms of his servants, and saying
with a sigh, as he wistfully looked around
them :

214 The Dnchefs of Trajetto.

" This is too large a house for so small a
family ! "

After this stalked the dread pageant of his
sins — sins of omission and sins of commission
— sins that seemed so little once, and that
seemed so crushing now — and as he moved
his weary head, gibing faces seemed grinning
and skinny fingers pointing at him round
the bed ; and when he closed his burning
evelids, he seemed to see them still, and to
hear a voice say, "Son, thou in thy lifetime
receivedst thy good things."

Oh ! where were the sacraments of the
Church 1 Where were they ? Why did not
some one think of them and bring them ?
Why had he not voice enough to ask for
them \ or strength enough to sign for them ?
And if he had, could they do him any good ?

He knew not how time went. It seemed
one long, long night, but in fact it covered a
few days. Bar Hhasdai arrived at last — he

More about the Cardinal 215

had been absent when sent for. The Chris-
tian hangers-on scowled and spat on him as he
passed. He looked loftily down on them, and
he passed on ; following the pale-faced Giovan
Andrea. Pausing at the door, the Jew looked
full at him.

" I want a dog," said he.
" A dog ?" repeated the steward, aghast.
" Yes : a four-footed one ; not a Christian.
And a roll of bread."

He passed into the sick room, where the
faithful Salviati rose from the Cardinal's bed-
side. The Prior, who was telling his beads,
drew his robe closer round him and retired
as far from the Jew as possible.

Bar Hhasdai took up a lamp, and held it

full in the Cardinal's unwinking eyes.

" He does not see it," said he.

He laid the palm of his hand against his

heart : then taking some crumb of the roll

the steward had brought him, he rubbed it

2i 6 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

against his own face and offered it to the lap-
dog Giovan Andrea held under his arm. The
little dog immediately ate it.

"What next?" thought the steward, in
wonder. The Prior stood transfixed, curiously
on the watch. Salviati's eyes had something
imploring in them : the faithful fellow had
not once left his master, and was now haggard
with his long vigil.

The Jew silently took another piece of bread
and rubbed the Cardinal's clammy face with
it : then offered it to the little dog. The
little dog smelt it, and resolutely refused to
taste it.

" You see," said Bar Hhasdai, fixing the
steward with his eye, " the Cardinal is
poisoned." Then, to the Prior, "Let him
have the sacraments of your Church."

Giovan Andrea reeled back, but recovered
himself in time to escape falling.

" Wretch ! " exclaimed Salviati, springing

More about the Cardinal. 2 1 7

towards him in rage and despair ; but Giovan
Andrea glided like a serpent from beneath his
grasp, and clapped the door after him.

"He will not escape justice," said the
Prior. " I have given orders that he shall
be watched."

Salviati cast himself on his expiring master
in a paroxysm of grief. At the sound of
his wild cry, others rushed in : and the Jew
quietly passed out. Extreme unction was
administered.

Thus perished the brilliant Ippolito de
Medici, who would deserve more pity if he
had not designed some very similar end for
his cousin Alessandro. He was abundantly
regretted ; for his companionable qualities
and lavish bounties had endeared him to a
very large circle of friends, who did not scan
his faults too closely; while his death was
hailed with intense satisfaction by his enemies.
Paul the Third made a frivolous excuse for

21 8 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

not sending him the specific he so urgently
requested. Probably it would not have saved
him ; but the animus of his Holiness was
not shown to his advantage on the occasion.

As for the wretched Giovan Andrea, he
made straight for the outer gates when he
quitted the Cardinal's chamber ; but was there
collared by a stalwart lay-brother, who, with
the assistance of two of Ippolito's retainers,
conveyed him to the lock-up room. Here he
remained a short time, in full anticipation of
being put to the torture ; which too surely
came to pass. At first he denied any guilt ;
but that most odious process being persisted
in, his agony at length wrung from him the
admission that he had administered poison to
the Cardinal, having ground it between two
stones, which he had afterwards thrown away.

Where had he thrown those stones ?

Upon a rubbish-heap outside the buttery-
window.

More about the Cardinal. 219

Search was made for the stones. They were
found, with marks of some foreign substance
upon them. They were shown him : he said
they were the same.

The Cardinal's retainers were so enraged
with the wretch, that they were with difficulty
restrained from falling upon him and putting
him to death. Felippo Strozzi had strongly
charged his son to deliver him out of their
hands, that a regular judicial examination
might take place at Rome, and Alessandro's
guilt, as the prompter of the crime, be
established.

The younger Strozzi, therefore, sent Giovan
Andrea, under a sufficient guard, to Rome,
where his examination took place ; and in the
first instance he confirmed his former con-
fession, and stated that he had received the
poison from one Otto di Montacuto, a servant
of Duke Alessandro's, to be employed as he
had used it.

220 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

Yet, after this, he denied both his former
confessions, and, in spite of all that Strozzi
could say or do, was actually let off! He
thereupon went straight to Florence, and
remained some days in the Duke's palace,
openly under his protection. He then retired
to his native place, Borgo di San Sepolcro,
a little town under the Apennines, some
forty miles from Florence. And here, after
remaining in safety a few months, whether
or no on account of any fresh proof of his
crime, he was stoned to death in a sudden
outburst of popular indignation.

As for the wicked Duke, his employer, I
shall only say that his murder was most
horrible : so that Ippolito's death was amply
avenged. We may all be very glad to have
done with the subject.

The Buchefs and the Marchionejs. 221

CHAPTER XVI.

THE DUCHESS AND THE MARCHIONESS.

It was given out to the world that Ippolito
had been carried off by fever, caught on the
marshes during his hot ride to and from
Fondi ; and this rilled the tender-hearted
Duchess with grief, as she knew not but that,
had she been at home, he might yet be alive.
She dwelt with mournfulness on his long-
cherished attachment, wept over his poems,
recalled his brightest points, and even ques-
tioned herself whether she ought to have
accepted him ; but the answer always was no.
And surely she was right ; for whatever
Ippolito's society-attractions might have been,
and however his character might have been
purified by household association with a better
nature, his worse qualities would undoubtedly

222 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

have cropped out as long as he remained an
unconverted man. Might not she have con-
verted him? Why, Vittoria, who knew her
best, would have told you that, at this time,
Giulia was not even converted herself. She
was very sweet, very amiable and charming ;
but she had not the faith which saves. Vittoria,
with her higher views and deeper nature, was
almost out of patience with her sometimes.

" What is it you want ? What is it you
need ? " she would say to her ; trying to rouse
her to a nobler life. " I can tell you : you
want the Holy Spirit ; and He will come to
you if you seek Him : but unsought, He is
unfound."

" O Vittoria ! why will you torment me
so ? " said Giulia, fretfully. " I want rest ; I
want peace."

" Rest and peace ? Why, you have a great
deal too much of both to be good for you ; and
as for your lawsuit, that is a mere mosquito-

The Duchefs and the Marchionefs. 223

sting, that draws neither blood nor tears. Fie
on you, Giulia ! with all your advantages, you
ought not to sit and wail about nothing. I
think you loved Ippolito more than you say
you did, or you would not give way so."

" I did not love Ippolito at all," said Giulia,
nettled. " I suppose one may be sorry for a
friend, without having been in love with him.
You do injustice to the memory of my dear
Duke, to suppose I could ever forget him."

" As to that," said Vittoria, " considering
your good Duke's years and infirmities, it is
difficult for any one to see why you should be
inconsolable. I am sure I am quite ready to
do justice to all his qualities of head and
heart ; but, if I am to speak sincerely, I must
own that your deploring him in the way you
have done has always seemed to me a little
exaggerated."

"I never asked you to speak sincerely,"
returned Giulia ; " and people generally make

224 fhe Duchefs of ^rajetto.

that a pretext for saying things that are
disagreeable. As for exaggeration, nobody
possessed of any feeling could consistently
accuse me of having too much of it."

" I am the last person to make an incon-
sistent accusation," observed Vittoria, " and
my own irreparable and immense loss is too
world-known for any one to say I want feel-
ing. I think, cousin, there is no one in Italy,
unless yourself, who has not compassionated
me in having been bereaved of my beloved,
adored Pescara, a man of infinite virtues,
graces, and attractions ; in war a hero, in
wisdom a sage ; in love and constancy a
perfect phoenix, — reft from me, me wretched !
in the veiy prime and flower of his life."

" Well, and I was very sorry for it," said
Giulia, " as sorry as it was possible to be for a
man I had never seen, because I could feel
for you, cousin ; and I went into the deepest
mourning — "

The Duchefs and the Marchionefs. 2

"The outward garb has little to do with
inward woe, Duchess/' said Yittoria, severely,
" else I had worn weeds for ever " — and she
plunged into her pocket for her handkerchief.

"Well, and so should I have done, Mar-
chioness," said Giulia. And then they both
burst into tears.

"Oh, Giulia," said Yittoria, in a stifled
voice, after crying some time, "why will you
try me so ? "

" Why, you began," said Giulia, And then
they embraced, like Brutus and Cassius ; and
Vittoria's good and kindly nature recovering
its ascendancy, she said with her charming
smile :

" I really thank you, Giulia, for upsetting
me, for I have wanted the relief of a good cry
for some time."

" You dear thing," said Giulia, kissing her —
" that was just my feeling too."

So, after this little squall, there was bright

226 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

sunshine. And as this was only a day or two
before the 17th of August, when the Emperor
was expected to land on his return from
Africa, Vittoria proposed to Giulia that they
should witness the procession together from
the balcony of a friend's palace in the best
situation.

Giulia said half reluctantly, " I don't affect
such worldly scenes much — "

" Nor do I, certainly," said Vittoria, " But
yet I should like to show my loyalty to the
Emperor ; and the scene will not be a mere
show, but will have a kind of historic interest ;
and will doubtless figure hereafter on the
historic page. So that, if I go, surely you
may."

" Ah, well, we will go together," said Giulia,
who really liked the idea. So these two illus-
trious ladies were among the fairest of the
fair whose eyes "rained influence" on the gay
pageant ; and, the same evening, the staid,

sober Emperor left the banquet early, and
sought out the widow of his brave though
not blameless general, Pescara ; and he liked
her so well, that the following year, when he
and she were in Rome, she was almost the
only lady whom he condescended to visit.

On the present occasion, Giulia was with
her; and something happening to be said by
the Viceroy, Don Pedro di Toledo, who accom-
panied the Emperor, about her roses having
paled in consequence of her vexatious law-
suit, Charles inquired into it, and in his dry,
succinct way, desired Don Pedro to see to it,
and let the affair be adjusted. So, when the
Emperor was gone, the Viceroy undertook the
investigation of the rival ladies' claims ; and
the result was, that he advised the Duchess to
be satisfied with her ample dowry, and the
addition made to it by her husband.

This did not content Isabella, who laid
claim to thirteen thousand ducats for pin-

q 2

2 2 8 The Buchefs of Trajetto.

money, and required that a judicial disposi-
tion she herself had made should be declared
void ; She offered, as a set-off, to give up
five hundred ducats per annum to Giulia ;
but again changed her mind. So that Giulia,
nearly worried out of her life by this un-
reasonable woman, again appealed to the
Emperor, who deputed a commission of three
members of his council to give judgment as
the case required. This unpleasant affair
extended through great part of another year.
Nothing brings out the unromantic features
of human nature so unpleasantly as a lawsuit.
Giulia was in a constant turmoil ; and she
lacked those leadings to a better life, which
Ochino might have afforded her ; for he had
been summoned to Venice by Cardinal Bembo,
who was anxious to hear him.

This cardinal was not a good man, though
I suppose there are good cardinals now and
then ; however, he was at least a distinguished

The Duchefs and the Marchionefs. 229

man and a great scholar. And being an
epicure in pulpit eloquence, lie wrote to
Vittoria Colonna, begging her to use ber
known influence with Fra Bernardino, to
induce him to preach at Venice during the
ensuing Lent. Yittoria complied with his
behest ; and Ochino consequently went to
Venice, where the impression that he made
may be judged- of from the following passage
in a letter from the Cardinal to the Mar-
chioness :

" I send Vossignoria notes of Fra Bernar-
dino's sermons, to which I have listened with
a pleasure I cannot express. Certainly, I
never heard so capital a preacher, and I
cannot wonder at your estimation of him.
He discourses in quite another manner from
any one I have ever heard ; and in a more
Christian spirit ; bringing forward truths of
the utmost weight, and enforcing: them with
loving earnestness. Every one is charmed

230 The Due Jiffs of Trajetto.

with him : he will cany away all our
hearts."

And again :

" I write to you, Marchioness, as freely as
I talk to Fra Bernardino, to whom I this
morning opened my whole heart. Never have
I had the pleasure of speaking to a holier
man. I ought to be now at Padua, on account
of a business which has engaged me all the
year, and also to get out of the way of the
constant applications with which I am assailed
on account of this blessed cardinalate ; but I
could not bear to lose the opportunity of
hearing some more of his excellent sermons. '

And again :

" Our Fra Bernardino, whom I must call
mine as well as yours, is at . present adored
in this city. There is not a man or woman
who does not cry him up to the skies. Oh,
what pleasure ! oh, what delight, oh, what joy
has he not given ! But I will reserve his

The Duchejs and the Marchionefs. 2 3 1

praises till I see Yossignoria, and meantime
pray God to prolong his life for the glory of
the Lord and the good of man."

What a pity that this enthusiasm was
- 1 short-lived ! Ochino was soon afterwards
chosen Director of the Capuchins. His in-
fluence over his brother friars was then great ;
and many of them, before they were well
aware of it, became imbued with the reformed
opinions. Purgatory, penance,, and papal par-
dons crumbled and fell before his powerfully
wielded hammer, the doctrine of justification
by faith.

Side by side with him laboured Retro
Martire Yennigli, who possessed more scholar-
ship, and who, while Ochino filled the pulpit,
furthered the same cause by delivering lectures
on the Epistles of St. Paul. Many monks,
many students, many nobles attended these
lectures. At length their tone became so
different from that of the Church, that the

T/ie Due kefs of Trajetto.

Viceroy interdicted him from preaching and
lecturing. But Pietro Martire appealed to
Rome, and obtained the removal of the
interdict.

Ifchia. 2

j^

CHAPTER XVII.

is.; HI A.

GlULiA was recruiting her health, mean-
time, at Vittoria's charming island-home of
Ischia,

" WTiere nothing met the eye but sights of bliss."

— where a graceful simplicity, indeed, reigned,
but under the regulation of the purest taste, —
where duties, softened into pleasures, filled up
every hour ; and where leisure, never degene-
rating into laziness, was alternately dedicated
to poetry, music, and painting, to the enjoy-
ment of the most exquisite beauties of nature,
to the cultivation of the mind, and to offices
of charity and devotion. Among the poets
and eminent men who here "invoked the
muses and improved their vein," and who

.234 The Duchefs of Trajettc

helped to make this remote rock famous, were
Musefilo, Filocalo, Giovio, Bernardo Tasso, and
many others. Bernardo Tasso thus sang the
praises of this charmed islet —

' ' Superbo scoglio, altero e bel ricetto
Di tanti chiari eroi, d'imperadori,
Onde raggi di gloria escono fuori,
Ch' ogni altro lume fan scuro e negletto,
Se per vera virtute al ben perfetto
Salir si puote ed agli eterni onori
Queste piu d'altre degne alme e migliori
Vandran ehe chiudi nel petroso petto.
II lume e in te dell' armi ; in te s'asconde
Casta belta, valore e cortesia,
Quanta mai vide il tempo, o diede il cielo.
Ti sian secondi i fati, e il vento e Tonde
Rendanti onore, e l'aria tua natia
Abbia sempre temprato il caldo e il gelo ! "'

Nor did younger and gayer poets want
younger and gayer beauties to inspire them
than the two noble widows ; for Vittoria's
household comprised six or eight nobly-born
girls who were being trained under her eye,
and whom her conscientiousness prevented

Ifchia. 235

from turning over to the sole superintendence
of the Mother of the maids.

"You might take more interest than you do,
Giulia," said she, " in the education of your
damsels. It would do them good, and you,
too."

" Ah, nothing could be more tiresome to
me," said Giulia. " I am most happy to leave
them to Donna Oaterina !

" I doubt, however,"' said Vittoria, "whether
we have even the right to keep fellow-crea-
tures about us, of like affections and passions
with ourselves, without providing some legi-
timate outlet for them, or supplying them
with sufficient motives for their restraint.'"'

- My girls seldom go into passion-."
Giulia ; " and I should think it impertinent to
inquire into their affections.'5

i: Why now, you incorrigible Giulia, did not
you tell me of your fits of suppressed laughter
while you were overhearing (actually eaves-

236 The "Duchefs of Trajetto.

dropping) that love dialogue between Tebaldo
and Isaura ? and of your laughing at her to
her face, afterwards, in the presence of the
other girls ? "

"I gave her a pearl necklace/' said the
Duchess.

"Not till she married, months afterwards."
"Well, I own I let myself down on that
occasion."

"As to letting yourself down, it is your
keeping yourself up that I complain of — "
" 0, what a beautiful butterfly ! — "
"My dear Giulia, dorit run after it and put
yourself in a fever. You are not quite a child
now ! "

" No, but I was a child once ; and when I
was a child-Duchess of thirteen, I thought that
if I did not keep my maids at a distance, they
would not respect me. And my mother's word
had always been, 'Never associate, child, with
servants.' "

If chia. 22 7

"Servants and slaves, that may apply to
very well;' said Vittoria, who had not sur-
mounted class-prejudices, " but your maids-of-
honour are well-born, and though for a time
they occupy subordinate positions, eventually
they will marry respectably, it is to be hoped."

" And that hope is enough to enliven them,
I suppose," said Giulia. " My dear Duke said
to me, very soon after our marriage : ( Pareo-
letta : ' — you know he loved to call me ' par-

goletta,' or ' animetta,' or ' dolce alma mia,'

he said, ( Pargoletta, don't have much to say
to your maids ; they are light and frivolous,
and will do you no good.' And I loved to
obey him ; and I love to obey him still, for he
was a wise man."

" They might do you no good, but you might
do them great good now," said Vittoria.

" 0, my dear, that set have long married off,
and had their portions— so many ducats, a bed,
bedding, and ewer and basin."

23 S The Buchefs of Trajetto.

'•' The new set, then — "

"Here's a strawberry, I declare," said Giulia,
diving into the leaves on the bank upon which
they were sitting. " Do have it ! "

" Xo, thank you. The — "

" I could no more preach and pray with my
maids as you do, Vittoria, than I could fly ! "

"Why not?"

" I should die of shame."

" Nonsense," said the Marchioness, laughing.

"I really should. It would be so ridiculous."

" Quite otherwise, I think, if you undertook
it in the right spirit."

" But I never could. It is not in me. They
would all begin to laugh — "

" They must be under very poor control,
then," said Vittoria.

"Besides, it would be so uncalled for — it
would take their thoughts off their j^roper
work."

" What is their proper work ? "

Ifchia. 239

■• To do vast quantities of embroidery and

tine needlework."

"Well, I think your proper work is to care
for their soul-.'"

- That's Fra Silvano's office."

■• Does he fulfil it ! "

•• Not very well, I'm afraid. He chatters
and laughs with them too much."

•■ I should like to see him chatter and laugh
with my maids/' said Yittoria, kindling. " He
should not do so twice."

•Ah," said Giulia. after a pause — "I wish I
were as good as you, Yittoria — "

" My dear soul, I am not good."

•You are a great deal better than I am.
Such as I am, I am and ever shall be."

•• Hush, we can none of us say that ! "

•• At any rate, there is no good thing in me,
to impart to others. And the girls do very
well as they are — they stick to their needles."

"' What do thev think of the while ? "

240 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

" Of their needles, I suppose."

" If they do, they are better than I am/'
said Yittoria, almost with a groan. "Oh,
Giulia, don't believe it ! "

" Well, I suppose nonsense of some sort
may pass through their heads," said Giulia,
rather uneasily. "How am I to keep it
out ? "

" By putting something better in. Not
merely by preaching and praying, but by
supplying proper, innocent food for their
imaginations and fancies. You know I read
my girls pleasant tales and dialogues some-
times, and lend them books of poetry and
history."'

" Well, your girls are certainly better con-
ducted than mine," said Giulia. " They giggle
less."

" A canister with very little in it always
rattles," said Yittoria. " I hate giggling."

"So do I ; and, do you know, my dear

Jfchia. 241

Vittoria, that is one reason why I have so
little to say to my maids."

" It is the very reason why you should say
the more. You should fill the canisters."

" I will try then/'' said the ingenuous Giulia,
" when I return to Fondi."

She returned there very soon : and Vittoria
Colonna went to Lucca ; " in an unostentatious
manner," says the old chronicler, " attended
by onry six gentlewomen."

Why she went to Lucca, except that it was
just then rife with the Eeformed opinions, and
ready to throw off the yoke of Rome, the
chronicler sayeth not. From Lucca she pro-
ceeded by easy stages to Ferrara, mounted on
her black and white jennet, with housings of
crimson velvet fringed with gold, and attended
by six grooms on foot, in cloaks and jerkins of
blue and yellow satin. She herself wore a
robe of brocaded crimson velvet, with a girdle
of beaten gold ; and on her head a travelling-

242 T/ie Duchefs of Trqjetto.

cap of crimson satin, well becoming her
" trecce d'oro," and large, mild blue eyes.

Arrived at Ferrara, slie was delightedly
welcomed by Duke Ercole and Duchess Renee.
Here was a house divided against itself. The
poor Duchess — highly intelligent and a little
crooked — now in her twenty-ninth year, had
been harshly dealt with by her husband, only
a twelvemonth back, for harbouring and com-
forting those arch-heretics Calvin and Clement
Marot ; and was now kept very much in check
by the terrors of the Church, though in heart
as much a Reformer as ever.

To grace " the divine Vittoria," whose
poetical fame was knowu all over Italy, and
whose eulogist, Bernardo Tasso, was secretary
to the Duchess of Ferrara, Duke Ercole invited
the most distinguished literati of Venice and
Lombardy to meet her. Oh, what a feast of
reason and flow of soul ! What reciprocations
of compliments and couplets ! What ransack-

If c hi a. C143

ing of heathen mythologies for metaphors and
allusions ! And then, in the retirement of the
Duchess's closet, poor Renee could, with a full
heart, ask Vittoria how things were oroingr at
Naples, whether Fra Bernardino were really
as moving a preacher as was reported, and
whether Juan di Valdes were sound on the
doctrine of justification.

And perhaps they had a snatch of serious
reading together, and Vittoria might recite to
her a few of her sacred sonnets, copies of
which were coveted even by cardinals ; and if
the Duke came in and constrained them to
change the subject, there was the clever little
Princess Anne to exhibit, who was being
educated, for the sake of emulation, with
Olynrpia Morata. Certes, Vittoria was made
much of! But the air of Ferrara did not
agree with her health, and she was soon
obliged to move southwards. Among the
dreams and schemes of the hour, which were

1; 2

244 5T%* Duchefs of Trajetto.

never to be realised, was a projected visit to
the Holy Land. She would so like to see the
holy places !

" The wildest scheme ! " young Del Vasto
pronounced it, when a rumour of it reached
him at Home. He lost no time in hastening
to his beloved friend, to dissuade her from
what she had perhaps never seriously con-
templated, and to induce her to be content
with the Eternal City. And when she reached
it, she was received with almost public honours
— so proud was Italy of its <: divine Tittoria
Colonna ! "

Here she found a circle of the most eminent
men in Italy, hopefully awaiting the issue of
Cardinal Contarini's conciliatory mission to the
German Reformers ; and it was trusted that, by
sions on the part of Rome, a fearful
schism might be avoided. But when did Rome
ever make wise concessions ?

It was at this time that the friendship com-

Ifchia. 245

nienced between Tittoria and ^Michael Angelo,
which was equally honourable to both ; and
we have his own word for it, that through her
he was made a devout Christian. It was the
crowning beauty of her life.

Meanwhile Giulia was the prey of intense

melancholy at Fondi. It expressed itself in

joyless looks, in mournful tones, in neglected

dress, in small austerities, in rising at out-of-

I - Tty hours to tell her rosary, &c.

Her ladies united in declaring that she must
be ill, and that the marsh miasma was answer-
able for it. So then Bar Hhasdai was sent
for; and he advised change of air and quan-
! .sv.mcit of generous red wine well spiced.
She acquiesced in both prescriptions ; and
then indulged in a little doctors' gossip, that
most healing balm. They talked over the
Cardinal's death, and Bar Hhasdai said that,
even if he had been sooner sent for, he did
not believe he could have saved him.

246 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

11 One cardinal the less, one saint the more,"
said Giulia.

Bar Hhasdai looked sceptical. " Was he of
the stuff that saints are made of ?" said he.

" He was very generally liked/' said Giulia.

"And so long as thou doest good unto
thyself, men will speak well of thee," said the
Jew, equivocally.

So she returned to her old quarters at
Xaples, where she had the satisfaction of
hearing from Yalde's, who immediately waited
on her, that Ochino was again preaching
with great acceptance. She had tried ascetic
mortifications, on a small scale, without any
beneficial result ; and she now, with a heart
aching for a better life, and sick of the world's
pleasures, which, after all, she had never much
indulged in, resolved to prove whether endur-
ing comfort might not be derived from the
cross of Christ.

A Better Life. 247

CHAPTER XYIII.

A BETTER LIFE.

You may have seen an old print of Titus's
Arch, in the foreground of which is an Italian
lady of quality, with hoop, lappets, and fan,
sailing to church, attended by her gentleman-
usher. A stately man-servant in advance
clears the way, two ladies-in-waiting follow
their mistress at a respectful distance, and two
or three more menials close the procession.

Something in this style did Giulia go to
the cathedral. As she was returning from it
one evening, accompanied by Yaldes, her heart
was full, and, after one or two ineffectual
beginnings she said — *

" I have so much confidence in our friend-
* Tide " Alfabeto Christiano. "

24 S The Duchefs of Trajetto.

ship, Sign or Yaldes, that I feel as if I could
speak . to you on some subjects even more
freely than to a confessor. If you are not
pre-engaged, therefore, I would gladly tell you
what is on my mind. Do I importune you ?"

" On the contrary, Signora/' said Yaldes,
'• I am honoured bv your commands, and you
well know there is no one I love better to

„

serve.

'•'A truce, then, with compliments of every
kind. I want to ojoen to you my whole heart,
for I am sure you will pity me. I am a
prey to such constant dissatisfaction with
myself and with everything around me, as
cannot be described. I neither know what
I wish, nor with what I should be contented.
Hence, I cannot conceive anything that could
be offered me capable of appeasing this
inquietude and removing my confusion of
mind. Many years have I felt thus : and
of late yon have given me reason to hope

A Better Life. 249

that if I would give ear to the preaching
of Ochino I should be tranquillised. Alas, I
find it quite otherwise ! And though I admit
that the fault may be mine rather than his,
yet the disappointment is so bitter, that tears
frequently come into my eyes through not
knowing what to do with myself, nor what
to lean upon."

Saying which, her tone was so sad, and she
looked so troubled, that the humane Value's
was filled with compassion.

" Say freely, Signora,"' said he, " whatever
you wish*to ask of me ; and be assured that
I will always expend in your service all that I
know and am able to do/'

" Tell me, then/' said Giulia, " from what
cause you believe this state of mind to sprirjg,
and how, if possible, it can be remedied, or
whether it must be borne."'

"You must first make me one promise,"
said Yaldes.

250 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

" What can that be ? " inquired the Duchess.

" If I show you the way by which you may
be relieved from your disquietude, you must
promise to walk in it."

"Of course. Gladly!"

" Be very attentive, then, Signora, to what
I am about to say. You know it is written
that man is made ' in the image and likeness
of God.' And you will also remember that
St. Paul counsels the Corinthians to put off
the old man with his deeds, that is, the sinful
nature we have all inherited since the fall, and
be clothed with the new man, who is created
1 in the image and likeness of God.' From this
it appears, that in such a degree as man retains
in himself the image and likeness of God,
in the same degree he apprehends and appre-
ciates spiritual things in a spiritual life and
conversation. Recognise this, and you will
all at once perceive whence your disorder and
disquietude of mind arise ; because you will

A Better Life. 251

see that your soul is striving for restitution
to the image of God, of which at present it is
deprived. The remedy is in your own hands."

" In my hands ? "

" Yes ! Because as soon as you determine
to renew and restore within yourself the image
and likeness of God, you will find peace, quiet,
and repose."

Giulia drew a deep breath, and then said —

"How must I do this?"

" By withdrawing your affections from vain
and transitory things, and fixing them on
those which are spiritual and eternal. Your
spirit thus finding its proper aliment, will
always be content and cheerful, and here in
this present life will begin to taste of that
felicity which it expects to enjoy for ever in
the life eternal. To this hajypiness only the
real Christian can attain."

"As for that," said the Duchess, "I know
many persons who have as much, and perhaps

252 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

more, cancelled the image of God than I have,
who are yet perfectly content and happy."

"Such persons," returned Yalde's, "have
low and vulgar minds, and can therefore
suffice themselves with mean and frivolous
objects that could never satisfy a refined and
generous nature like yours. . . I am not
at all sorry that you should be troubled in the
way you have described, because it shows that
the preaching of the Gospel is producing its
first effect on you. . . There is nothing in
this world that could give me so much plea-
sure as to see you walking in the path of life,
for I hold it for certain that, once in complete
union with God, you would outstrip many who
are now saints in heaven."

" I desire to do so," said she, softly.

" Then why don't you do what you desire \ "
rejoined Valdes.

" Because I don't know how."

" Force, force, Skmora ! force is the one

A Better Life. 253

thing wanting. 'The kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence, and the violent take it by
force.' "

"Lead me by the hand, then," said she,
" instructing me in those footsteps by which I
believe you have walked."

" You want me," said Yalde's, " to show you
some royal and ladylike road by which you
may get to God without turning away from
the world. But, lady, no such compromise
can be made. Have you ever crossed a
running stream ? "

" Yes, many times.'*

'•Do you not remember how your head
swam if you looked at the flowing water, but
how steady it was if you fixed your eyes on
the opposite shore ? Thus, with God and the
world, endeavour to keep the view of your
soul fixed and nailed with Christ on the cross.
And if at any time, through want of care,
your eyes are diverted to the things of this

254 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

world, return, return, Signora, as quickly as
possible, to fix them on Christ crucified ; and
all will be well. You know the human heart
is naturally inclined to love. It must either
love God and all things for God, or it must
love itself and all things for itself. He who
loves God, performs everything he does for
Him. And thus, if he loves anything besides
God, he loves it for the sake of God, and
because God wills it so. And then his good
works please and are acceptable to God,
because they spring from love. Agreeable to
this is what St. Augustine says — c Good works
follow in them who are already justified, and do
not go before in him who has to be justified.'
You know how you yourself estimate what
a person does in your affairs when you know
you owe not his good services to the affection
he bears you, but to some other motive."

This dialogue, which had been begun in the
open air, was now being carried on in the

A Better Life, 25$

Duchess's parlour. She sat in a high-backed,
richly carved chair, looking out through the
balconied window, on the bay of Naples, with
streaks of summer lightning now and then
illumining the sky, and the lurid fires of
Vesuvius glowing in the distance. Yaldes sat
on a stool a little apart.

" Since you wish me," said she, after a pause,
" to make the love of God my prime motive,
and, next to it, the love of my neighbour, —
well then, I will do so ! — but mention, if it
please you, some rule by which I may know
and understand what it is I ought to do ;
because I wish to give myself up to the love
of God, even so much so as to deprive myself
of your favour, and that of a hundred others
like you."

" No, Signora, no ! you can never do that ! "
said Yaldes, fervently : and he then sketched
out for her the outline of a Christian life,
not circumscribed within slavish bounds, but

256 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

capable of adaptation to time and place, sex
and degree, based only on the immutable
principle of loving God above and in all
things, and one's neighbour even as one's self.
It was a memorable evening for Giulia. Her
cheeks were wet with tears, but they were the
sweetest she had ever shed. They took no note
of time, but prolonged the interview till night.
When they parted, she said to him :
" I shall never forget this conversation ! "
"And I," said he, deeply moved, "shall
remember it always/'

" Oh, that I could preserve every word you
have spoken ! Do you think you could com-
mit the substance to writing?"
" Undoubtedly, if you wish it."
" I do wish it, most earnestly. And pray
for me, pray for me, dear friend, that your
words may not only sink into my heart, but
take root in it, and bring forth fruit abun-
dantly."

I -

A Better Life. 257

" I will, indeed, Signora ; but, above all, fail
not to pray for yourself, that the love of God
may abound in you yet more and more."

" Never knew I till now what that love was !
I have heard tell a thousand times of this
going out of a person's self to enter into God,
but never, in all I have heard, was it made
comprehensible.''

" You are so much the more under obliga-
tion to love God, since He has preserved, you
so long in this w-orld as to come to know this
which till now you have not understood."

(; You are right. May it please God that I
know how to profit by it."

She gave him her hand. He kissed it with
the utmost reverence : then, raising his eyes
heavenwards, uttered a short, fervent prayer
for her confirmation in the knowledge and
love of God.

"When he was gone, she covered her eyes
with her hand, and tears slowly trickled down

25 S The Duchefs of Trajetto.

her cheeks. Almost unconsciously, she sank
on her knees and murmured —

" O, my God ! teach me to be what Thou
wouldst have me to be, and then enable me"
to do what Thou wouldst have me to do !
Form in me Thine own image and likeness,
for Christ's sake ! "

A strange calm and sweet jDeace took pos-
session of her soul.

When Valdes presented himself to her, a
few days afterwards, he brought her his manu-
script version of the substance of their dia-
logue, written in his native Spanish, which
was nearly as familiar to her as Italian, seeing
that it was continually spoken by Yittoria
Colonna and others of her familiar acquaint-
ance. The faithfulness with which he had
recalled the vivacity of her rejoinders showed
how deeply they had interested him, and if
his own speeches were less closely reported, it
was chiefly because he had taken the oppor-

A Better

Life.

259

tunity of extending them

even

at the

price of

weakening

their spirit.

" Here/'

said he, " 3*011

have

what

y°i

l re-

quired of

me ; and I

have

called

it

the

Christian

Alphabet, because, in fact,

it

con-

tains but the A B C of Christian doctrine.
Believe in nothing I have here set down that
you cannot bring to the test of Scripture. And
do not content yourself with this Alphabet, or
with any mere writings of men, but drink of
the pure water of life at its source. May
Christ become the j>eaceful possessor of your
heart, in such a manner as that He may
absolutely and without contradiction rule and
regulate all your purposes. "When this is the
case, you will not feel the want of anything
whatsoever in this life to give you contentment
and repose."

She took the book with solemnity, and
promised compliance with his wishes. This
singular little work, of which, till lately, it was

260 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

not known that there was a copy extant, does
not profess to be more than what Valdes
called it, and confines itself to inculcating the
formation of the Divine image in the soul, if
haply it might find Him, without attempting
to attack the prevailing corruptions of the
Church. In fact, this remarkable layman, who
set so many Reformers forward on the path of
martyrdom, did so by inculcating a few great
truths, rather than by pulling down strong-
holds of error ; and a certain class of his
disciples eventually brought discredit on him
by veiling Reformed opinions under the punc-
tilious observance of Romish practices. But
not of these temporising spirits were Car-
nesecchi, Flaminio, or Yergerio ; all of whom
were of the school of Valdes.

Red and Peace. 261

CHAPTER XIX.

REST AND PEACE.

WHEN the structure is built, the scaffolding
is removed : when we are raised up to Christ,
our earthly props are often knocked away.

Ochino was soon to leave Naples — Valdes
was soon to leave this earthly world. For a
little while the Church had rest : and then
burst out a furious, fiery persecution. Its
burning annals have no place in my story;
but I will annex a chapter about it as an
Appendix, for those who will not or cannot
refer to the original sources.

An advance had taken place in Ochino's
opinions, which, for a time, was felt rather
than understood by his hearers. He appealed
directly to the Scriptures in support of his
doctrine, and bade them search for themselves.

262 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

In spite of his boldness, he not only was
allowed to continue to preach in the Cathedral,
but, in a chapter held at Naples in 1541, was
re-elected General of the Capuchins.

His departure from the Church of Home
was detected, however, by the jealous eye of
Cardinal Pole, who wrote to Vittoria Colonna,
urging her to beware of his influence, and
even exacting from her a promise, which no
woman of independent spirit would have given,
that she would not read any letter addressed
to her by Ochino, without consulting him or
Cardinal Cervini. Vittoria gave this promise,
and afterwards redeemed it by transmitting to
Cardinal Cervini, not one letter, but a packet
of letters written to her by Ochino ; observing
on them, in an accompanying note, " I am
grieved to see that the more he attempts to
excuse himself, he condemns himself the more ;
and the more he believes he shall save others
from shipwreck, the more he exposes himself

Reft and Peace. 263

to the delude ; being out of the ark which
alone can save."'

Vittoria was at Rome, the head-quarters of
intolerance, attending Fra Ambrogio's lectures
in the church of San Silvestro, and sending
her servant, after the sermon, to Michael
Angelo, saying, " Tell him that I and Messer
Lattanzio are here in this cool chapel, that
the church is shut and very pleasant, and ask
him if he will come and spend the morning
with us." And when he came, their talk was
not of polemics, but of painting, and of her
building a convent on the slope of Monte
Cavallo.

Vittoria, having put her hand to the plough,
had drawn back ; but Giulia had chosen the
better part, and has attained the honour of
being stigmatised in Romish records as " sus-
pected of heretical pravity."

Oh ! how she wept when Valdes died ! They
were tears of sweet and pure affection, un-

264 The Duchefs of Trajetto.

mixed -with bitterness or gloomy foreboding,
for he bad been called, at tbe second watch,
to his rest : and she had now a good assurance
of following in the same luminous track, up-
held by the same right hand, straight up to
heaven, without the intervention of a fearful
purgatory.

He was called away in the strength of his
manhood, for he was little more than forty,
and his twin brother is lost sight of about the
same time. Lovely in their lives, in death
they were not long divided. Peaceful, natural
decline removed them from the persecutions
that awaited their followers.

It is not hard to divine his last admonitions
to Giulia. " Search the Scriptures, for in them
we know that we have eternal life. Pray, dear
Signora ! pray ! As our Lord prayed on the
mount, the fashion of His countenance was
altered, and His raiment became white and
glistening ! Doubtless, whenever we pray, the

Reft and Peace. 26

expression of our countenance is altered in the
sight of God, if not of man ; and our raiment,
the righteousness of Christ, becomes white and
glistening. Oh, what an incentive to prayer !
St. Matthew and St. Luke, you will find, in
narrating the transfiguration, do not give us
the preface — 'cmd as lie prayed! But how
important an addition it is ! What a blessing
that prayer drew down ! It drew prophets
and saints from heaven ! "

" V aide's, dear friend ! Would that my
prayers might hereafter draw you down from
heaven to comfort me ! Yet no ; I recall the
selfish wish. Rather let me fancy you calling,
' Come up hither ! ' "

" Fancy our Lord so calling you, dear
Signora, and it will be mere fancy no longer.
All my teaching will have been in vain, if
you covet human rather than divine sym-
pathy and help."

" But you have been to me as a brother."

166 The Duche/s ofTrajetto.

" There is a Friend that sticketh closer than
a brother, Si^cnora. Come, give me a text, ere
you leave me, to dwell upon when you are
gone."

"fYe shall go out with joy, and be led
forth with peace.' "

" God grant it ! And here is one for you,
whose time has not yet come to be led forth.
1 Behold ! I have refined thee, but not with
silver ' — (not in the same way, that is ; not
with mere physical heat) — ' I have chosen thee
in the furnace of affliction.' See ! there is
something that escapes us at first. God not
only says He has tested us, but that He has
chosen us. 0, blessed to be the chosen of the
Lord—"

" Yaldes, I seek Him, but I know not that
I have yet found Him — "

"Signora! 'let the heart of them rejoice
that seek the Lord.' "

While masses were beimr suncf and said for

Reft and Peace. 267

the soul of Cardinal Ippolito, the spirit of
Yalde's departed without a sigh. " For so He
giveth His beloved sleep." But were Giulia's
affections, which had been gradually refining,
then left without a human object ? Xo. By the
will of his paternal grandfather, her nephew,
Yespasiano, the little Duke of Sabionetta,
came into her charge ; and the education of
the dear little boy. now eight years old,
became her care. She procured the best and
most enlightened tutors for him, in Tuscan,
Latin, and Greek ; and despatched an envoy
to Charles the Fifth, to secure for him the
investiture of the state of Lombardy, and to
supersede its administrators by Don Ferrante
and Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga.

This young boy was trained up by her in
the paths of virtue and godliness ; and lovingly
did he repay her pains. He grew up a fine
character, distinguished for liberality and in-
telliofence ; and to him the Jews owed the

2 68 The Buchefs cf Trajetto.

licence for their printing press at Sabionetta.
When lie died, in 1591, the line became extinct.

Besides superintending Yespasiano's educa-
tion, the Duchess devoted herself to visiting
the sick in the hospitals, and relieving the
poor with her own hands. She shunned the
company of the idle and frivolous, and cul-
tivated the friendship of the wise and good.
She lived to a ripe old age, shining more and
more unto the perfect day — a light in a dark
place, during an age of gross corruption —
unsullied by the breath of slander, and re-
spected, in spite of her averred 'heretical
pravity/ by the Romish Church.

The faithful old maggior-domo, Perez, wrote
thus to Vespasiano, on the 19th of April, 1566 :

" It appears to me that I should fail in
my duty, as a servant for twenty-one years
together, towards the deserving memory of
the illustrious lady, my Lady Donna Giulia

Reft and Peace. 269

di Gonzaga, your aimt, if I did not offer to
condole with your Excellency on her death.

. . . " Her illustrious ladyship died, as
you will have heard by letter from Magnifico
Modignano, and from M. Federigo Zanichelli
to-day, between twenty-one and twenty-two
o'clock. She made an end conforming with
her most holy life, continuing sensible to the
moment when her sainted spirit left the body.
Her will has been opened, and 3-011 will have
learnt from the before-mentioned Modignano
and Zanichelli, that your Excellency is left-
absolute heir of her property, deducting certain
legacies ; the will being very different from one
executed seven years ago."

To the aforesaid Perez she left an annuity
of a hundred ducats : to Caterina, her maid,
two hundred ducats down, and a bed and
bedding. To Petrillo, whom she had brought
up in her house, a thousand ducats ; or, in case

270 TheDnchefsofTrajetto.

of his death before he were of age, half that
sum to his father and mother. To Meteflo,
her page, a hundred ducats down. To the
brother of her former maid, Caterina Rosso,
and to his two children, a hundred ducats
each, in remembrance of her services. To her
chaplain, twenty ducats. To Madonna Antonia,
her lady's-maid, twenty ducats and her salary.
To two little girls assisting in the kitchen,
ten ducats each, besides their wages. To all
the house-servants, their expenses for a month.

Also, remembrances to the nuns of Santa
Clara, and to certain officers of the Hospital
for Incurables.

Also marriage portions to sundry young
women, and legacies to her physicians.

Also legacies to four hospitals.

This remarkable entry was made —

" I leave Cynthia, my slave, to the said
Vespasiano my heir, whom I direct to take
her to his state of Lombardy ; and, when he

Reft and Peace. 2 7 1

lias come to the truth of what I wished to
know from her, to give her in marriage in that
province, with two hundred ducats currency as
dowry, and to make her free and set her at
liberty."

And, on re-cons ' n. towards the close

of the will, — after leaving a legacy to her
undutiful daughter-in-law, and to her sister, a
nun, —

" If ever any person be found who may have
given me offence in any manner whatsoever, I
freely pardon them, and beg my heir not to
bear any resentment. I also order and bind
my said heir that he use no constraint or
severity towards the said Cynthia : — nor am I
careful that he should learn from her what
I said before that I wished to know ; but that
he shall make her free and set her at liberty,
and give her in marriage in the province of
Lombardy, as I before said."

If looks could kill, would not the stub-

272 The Duchefs of Frajetto.

born, impenetrable Cynthia have been anni-
hilated by the glances that were given her
by the rest of the Duchess's women, when
this testamentary disposition transpired ? Had
they the concentrated power of burning-
glasses, she would have borne them just as
stoutly. All her life she had been sinning
and inly repenting ; but, to draw from her
one word she did not choose to speak — no !
that they should not ! She, an Abencerrage,
to be treated like a slave % She had no feel-
ings in common with her captors : she hated
their race, and despised their creed. She only
made an exception in favour of the Duchess ;
but the Duchess did not understand her :
nobody understood her. Oh ! how hackneyed
a complaint it is, that we are not understood !

So, although Cynthia had shed sincere tears
for her mistress, she felt a gloomy glory, when
she heard the first clause relating to herself,
in thinking that the more the young Duke

Reft and Peace.

/o

insisted on her telling, the more she would
never mind. But when she found her gentle
mistress had retracted that command, and left
her mentally and bodily at liberty — she stole
away to a solitary place, and there shed big-
tears, beating her breast, and saying,

" 0 Leila, Leila 1 You loved me ! — and

indeed I loved you !

Appendix,

ID

APPENDIX.

My story is ended — but, as it is based on Truth,
I hope few who have read the foregoing pages
with any pleasure, will be without some interest
in the subsequent progress of the Italian Reforma-
tion.

Stifled in its infancy, it is now re-awakening into
life ; and though it as yet only numbers its open
converts by hundreds, yet, where the Bible is now
freely read, it cannot be but that Truth, which is
great, shall eventually prevail.

The following sketch, chiefly abridged from
M'Crie, may be acceptable to those who cannot
refer to his History of the Reformation in Italy.
I have, however, likewise drawn from other sources.

It was in 1542 that the court of Lome first
became seriously alarmed at the progress of the

T 2

Appendix.

new opinions in Italy. Cardinal Caraffa, who after-
wards became Pope . Paul the Fourth, laid before
the sacred college the discoveries he had made of
their spread in Xaples and many other parts. It
was resolved to proceed against some of the leaders,
especially Ochino and Peter Martyr Vermigli.
Ochino, learning that his death was determined
on at Pome, hastily fled to Ferrara, whence, beino-
assisted by the good Duchess Penee, he escaped the
hands of the armed men despatched to apprehend
him, and reached Geneva in safety.

This flight was considered very cowardly by the
resolute disciples he had left behind ; and, indeed,
Ochino's story would read much better if he had
remained to share their fate, for there is a great
falling off in his subsequent history.

As for Martyr, who had parted with him at
Florence, he took refuge in Zurich, whence he
wrote back to those whom he had left to weather
the storm, advising them by all means to stand by
the sinking ship ! Seeing the wolf coming, he and

Appendix. 277

Ochino left the sheep, and fled; 110 wonder that
the wolf scattered the sheep.

The result was this. Many of Ochino's friends
were apprehended, and some of them driven to
recant : and eighteen monks of Peter Martyr's
monastery were thrown into prison. Before the
year was out, eighteen more of them escaped to
Switzerland. Yet the little church that was in
Lucca kept its lamp burning twelve more years.

Celio Curio was another leading Reformer. Re-
ceiving private information that he had better con-
sult his safety, he sought refuge in Lausanne. A
few months afterwards, he stole back to fetch his
beloved wife and children ; but was tracked by the
familiars of the Inquisition. He was dining at an
inn, when a captain of the Papal Band entered, and
commanded him to surrender. Celio rose from
table, the carving-knife still in his hand ; the cap-
tain involuntarily drew back — seeing which, Celio,
still grasping the knife, and assuming a look of
great determination, walked deliberately out of the

n^Q

j 8 Appendix.

room, passed through the armed men at the door,
took his horse from the stable, and made off.

The Inquisition had been introduced into Italy
at its first establishment in the twelfth century,
but was so repugnant to the free states, that it
was confined to the Order of St. Francis. Bishops
might take part with the inquisitors in the examina-
tion of heretics, but had no power to inflict punish-
ments. In 1543, however, Paul the Third granted
the title and rights of inquisitors to six cardinals,
with full power to apprehend and imprison sus-
pected persons of whatever rank : and the operations
of this court gradually extended over Italy, in spite
of great resistance. This was decisive of the unfor-
tunate issue of the movements in favour of religious
reform. Numbers of Reformers fled from the
country : others remained to abjure or die for their
faith. A formulary was drawn up, to which acade-
micians were expected to subscribe, and this pro-
duced a great excitement.

In 1545, proceedings were commenced against

Appendix, 279

Felippo Valentino, a young man of great promise,
at Modena, suspected of heresy. Hearing that an
armed force was corning to apprehend him, he
escaped by night, leaving his books and papers
behind, which, being examined by the Inquisitors,
brought many of his Mends into trouble. Next
day, an edict was published, forbidding any to have
heretical or suspected books, or to dispute publicly
or privately on any point of religion, under the
penalty, for the first orTence, of a hundred crowns of
gold, or, if unable to pay that sum, of the strappado.
For the second offence, two thousand golden crowns,
or baiiishment. For the third, death.

Valentino and Castelvetro were cited to appear
at Rome. The popular feeling was so strong for
them, that the Duke of Modena was petitioned to
intercede with the Pope, that the trial should be
suspended; which he declined. Valentino and
Castelvetro, not answering the citation, were excom-
municated. The latter escaped to Ferrara, thence
to Geneva, and finally settled at Chiavenna. What

2 So appendix.

became of Valentino we are not told. He was gifted
with an extraordinary memory, and could correctly
repeat a sermon or lecture after hearing it once.

Another distinguished sufferer for the Truth was
Olympia Morata, who did not indeed seal her testi-
mony with her blood, but who was driven from
home and country. Celio Curio had found refuge
in her father's house in Ferrara, about the time
that Olympia went to reside at the Ducal Palace,
in order to inspire the little Princess Anne with
emulation in her classical studies. Here, her life
was too gay and worldly to be good for her.

" Had I remained longer at court," she afterwards
wrote to Celio Curio, " it would have been all over
with me and my salvation. For never, while I
remained there, did I attain the knowledge of ought
high or heavenly, or read the Old or Xew Testa-
ment."

Yet she had two female friends of more than
average merit — Francesca Bucyronia and the
Princess Lavinia della Ptovere. Gifted and pure-

minded as they were, these interesting girls as yet
cared for the things of this present life, and
philosophy, falsely so called.

Olympia was summoned from court by the mortal
illness of her beloved father ; and, in the whole-
discipline of the sick-room, received lessons of
invaluable worth. He died, reposing on her pro-
: - to supply a parent's place, as far as possible,
to her little brother and her three young sisters, and
t minister with filial devotion to her sickly mother.
It was a great charge, but she struggled bravely
with her difficulties. The great questions at issue
fcween the Reformers and their foes addressed
themselves, also, to her attention, more forcibly
than heretofore ; connected as they were with the
of one in whom her friend, the Princess
Lavinia, took deep interest. A young man, named
Fannio, was consigned to the dungeons of Ferrara,
for adhering to the reformed opinions. To his wife
and sister, who came to see him in prison, he said,
" Let it suffice you that, for your sake, I once

denied my Saviour ! Had I then had the know-
ledge which, by the grace of God, I have acquired
since my fall, I would not have yielded to your
entreaties. Go home in peace ! " "Weeping, they
went. He lay two years in prison, " to the further-
ance of the Gospel,'"' inasmuch as " his bonds in
Christ were manifest in all the palace." Faithful
friends resorted to him thither ; among them were
Lavinia and Olympia. The peril of their visits
perhaps added a little zest to the impression of his
teaching. In that gloomy cell, he and they and a
little handful of the faithful, prayed, and read the
Scriptures, and broke bread, and sang hymns, just
as in the early times.

"When it was found that many persons of rank,
besides Lavinia, stole to these meetings, while his
fellow-prisoners were so wrought upon by his
heavenly-mindedness that they declared they had
never known what true liberty and happiness were
till they found them in a prison — Fannio was put
into solitary confinement.

Though visitors were rigorously excluded, he
reached them with his letters ; notwithstanding the
repeated change of his gaolers. With what intense
interest must Lavinia and Olympia have pored over
these letters ! In 1550, Fannio was brought to the
stake, and, being first strangled, was committed to
the flames. He was the first of the Reformers who
laid down his life for his faith.

Olympia, meanwhile, bereft of court favour, led
a troubled and painful life. She wrote to Celio
Curio — " After my father's death, I remained
alone ; abandoned by those who ought to have
supported me. My sisters were involved in my
misfortune, and only reaped ingratitude for the
devotion and services of years. How deeply I felt
it, you may readily conceive. Xot one of those
who had been our friends in former times had now
the courage to show the least interest in us." She
knew and he knew, indeed, that the Princess
Lavinia was a noteworthy exception.

This cheerless loneliness was broken by the con-

stancy of a young Bavarian student of medicine,
named Griinthler, who had already offered his
hand to her and been refused. He now renewed
his addresses : his devotedness touched her heart,
and she accepted him. They were married very
quietly in 1550. "Neither the resentment of the
Duke," she wrote to Curio, " nor all the miserable
circumstances which surrounded me, could induce
him to abandon his desire to make me his wife.
So great and true a love has never been surpassed."

Leaving her under the protection of Lavinia,
Griinthler repaired to Germany to find a home for
her, where they might at least enjoy freedom of
conscience.

" Your departure," Olympia wrote to him, " was
a great grief to me, and your long absence is the
greatest misfortune that could befall me. I am
always fancying you have had a fall, have broken
your limbs, or been frozen by the extreme cold.
You know what the poet says —

" Res est soliciti plena timoris amor."

Appendix. 285

"If you would alleviate this tormenting anxiety,
let me know what you are about ; for my whole

heart is yours, as you know full well."

Griinthler was so long finding what he wanted,
that his good friend, George Hermann, advised him
to fetch his wife and live with him at Augsberg.
till something should turn up — which he did.
Olympia's grief was great at parting with her
mother and sisters, whom she had little hope of
ever seeing again : her brother Emilio, eight years
of age, she took with her. Thus Italy lost one of
its most distinguished women.

Once settled in Germany, she was very happy.
"We are still," she wrote, "with our excel.
friend, and I am delighted with my home here. I
pass my entire day in literary pursuits — me cum
Musis delecto — and have no cares to draw me away
from them. I also apply myself to the study of
Holy Writ, which is so productive of peace and
contentment."

The occupation she chiefly found for her pen was

286 Appendix.

translating the Psalms of David into Greek verse.
These her husband used to set to music, and the
singing of them formed the evening amusement of
their little circle.

After residing some months with George Her-
mann, they removed to another friend, John Sinapi,
a good physician who had married Olympia's early
companion, Francesca Bucyronia. At length they
obtained a humble home of their own at Schwein-
furth on the Maine. And here they dwelt usefully
and happily till war and pestilence raged around
them. Schweinfurth was sacked : Olympia fled
from it barefoot, in worse plight than Giulia Gon-
zaga, for she had no horse to carry her to
the nearest refuge, ten miles off. " I might have
been taken," she said, "for the queen of the
beggars."

At length they reached Erbach, where the good
Countess received her like a mother, and nursed
her through her sickness. But Olympia never
recovered from the effects of that fearful flight ; and

Appendix. 287

an early death crowned her beautiful and exemplary
life.

The persecution which raged against the humbler
confessors in Ferrara, failed not to attack the
Duchess herself, though the daughter of a King of
France. It was not till she had endured a short
imprisonment that she was intimidated into con-
cealing her convictions. On the death of the Duke,
she returned to France, where she made open
profession of the reformed faith, and afforded
shelter to its confessors.

In the Venetian states, the persecution raged
with great violence. Francesco Spira, a lawyer of
Padua, died in such agonies of mind at having been
induced, by the terrors of the Inquisition, to recant,
that Tergerio, the converted bishop of Capo d'
Istria, who was present at his death, was greatly
affected by it. " To tell the froth," says he, '-'I
felt such a flame in my breast, that I could hardly
help going to the legate at Venice, and crying out,
" Here I am ! where are your prisons and vour

288 Appendix.

fires ? " Instead of this, he sought refuge among
the Grisons.

The way of putting the Venetian martyrs to
death was not by fire but by water. At dead of
night, the prisoner was taken from his cell, and put
into a gondola, attended by a priest. He was rowed
out to sea, beyond "The two Castles," where
another boat was waiting. A plank was then laid
across the two gondolas, upon which the prisoner,
heavily chained to a stone, was placed. On a given
signal, the two boats paddled different ways.

The first martyr who thus suffered was Giulio
Giurlanda. When set on the plank, he calmly bade
the gondoliers farewell, and, calling on the Lord,
sank into the deep.

Antonio Bicetto, of Vicenza, followed his example,
though urged to recant by the most tempting bribes.
Space would fail if I undertook to recount all who
in their turn were faithful unto death. Others
escaped; and there was not a city of note in Italy
that did not swell the list of fugitives. This shows

Appendix.

how widely the reformed opinions must have
spread.

Nowhere was greater cruelty shown than to the
Milanese. Galeazzo Trezio, a man of noble birth,
was sentenced to be burnt alive, which he bore with
the utmost fortitude. A young priest, after being
half-strangled, was literally roasted alive, and then
thrown to the dogs.

At Naples, so great was the rigour of the Inquisi-
tion as seriously to affect trade. Whole streets were
deserted by their inhabitants. Terrified by the
severities exercised upon their brethren, a con-
siderable body of Neapolitans agreed to quit Italy
together. But, when they reached the Alps, and
stopped to take a last view of their beloved country,
they burst into tears and resolved to return home.
They no sooner reached it than they were cast into
prison.

But, of all the barbarities of which Rome was
guilty at this time, none were more horrible than
those which were inflicted on the Waldenses who

290 Appendix.

had settled in Calabria. I have already related how
these peaceable people had founded a little colony,
and, by their exemplary lives, had won the good
opinion of even the priests. They now amounted to
about four thousand persons, and they possessed
several towns in the neighbourhood of Coscenza,
two of which were Santo Xisto and La Guardia.

Cut off from all intercourse with their Walden-
sian brethren, these colonists had habituated them-
selves to attend mass, without which they found it
difficult to maintain friendly relations with their
neighbours. Hearing of the spread of the reformed
opinions in Italy, similar to those for which their
ancestors had bled, these "Waldenses became con-
vinced they had sinned in conforming to Popish
observances, and they applied to their friends and
ministers at Pragela and Geneva, for teachers who
should reform and restore their discipline.

No sooner was this known at Rome, than two
monks were sent to reduce these Waldenses to
obedience to the holy see. They began very gently

■with the inhabitants of Santo Xisto, saving they
had only come to prevent them from lapsing into
eiTor ; and they appointed a time for the celebration
of mass, which they enjoined eveiy person to attend.

Instead of this, the TValdenses, in a body, re-
treated into the woods, only leaving behind them
a few old people and children. The monks, con-
cealing their chagrin, repaired to La Guardia, and,
having caused the gates to be shut, assembled the
inhabitants and told them their brethren of Santo
had renounced their errors, and they had
better follow their good example.

The poor simple people were talked over, and
complied ; but great was their indignation when
they found the deceit that had been practised on
them. They were eager immediately to join their
brethren in the woods, but were dissuaded by their
feudal lord.

Meanwhile, the monks directed two companies
of foot-soldiers to beat the woods, and hunt down
the fugitives in them like wild beasts, which they

D 2

; 9 2 Appendix.

did, with cries of " Ammazzi ! amrnazzi ! " " Slay
them ! slay thera ! "

Some of the Waldenses, securing themselves
among the rocks, demanded a parley with the
captain of their assailants. They pleaded for their
wives and children, said they were willing peace-
ahly to leave the country, and implored him to
withdraw his men. Instead of this, the captain
commanded an instant attack, most of the parleyers
were cut clown, and the rest took to flight. San
Xisto was given up to fire and sword ; and the
fugitives still lurking in the woods, either were put
to death or perished with hunger.

The people of La Guardia were then given up
to the tender mercies of the Inquisition. My pen
refuses to copy the account of the horrible cruelties to
which they were subjected. Sixty women were tor-
tured, most of whom died in prison, in consequence
of their wounds remaining undressed. Yet this
was nothing to what afterwards ensued. One of the
Catholic historians savs, " Some had their throats

Appendix. 293

cut, others were sawn asunder, others thrown from
a high cliff: all were cruelly, but deservedly put
to death. It was strange to hear of their obstinacy ;
for while the father saw his son put to death, and
the son his father, they not only exhibited no
symptoms of grief, but said joyfully that they
should be angels of God ! So much had the devil,
to whom they had given themselves up as prey,
deceived them ! ;; ;;

Martyrs of whom the world was not worthy !
It is less sad, after all, to read of the martyrdoms
of Carnesecchi, and Di Monti, and Paleario, and
many others, than to find heresies and schisms
creeping into the little flock itself, and drawing
many of them away from the purity of that faith
for which others died.

Unitarianism was the canker that ate into the

bud of the Italian Reformation. The opinions of

Servetus and Socinus, and various modifications of

them, insinuated themselves into the minds of the

* Tommaso Costa.

£ 94 Appendix.

hapless exiles, who were scattered as sheep having
no shepherd. Camillo Renato was one of the
leading schismatics; and though he did not avow
his own disbelief in the Trinity, his followers made
no scruple of doing so. Many were tossed in a wild
sea of doubt; others were swayed to and fro by
every wind of doctrine ; but we must not forget
that a great many were consistent and faithful
to the end of their course. Even Ochino's ortho-
doxy was suspected ; though Calvin saw no reason
to doubt it. There was a cloud, however, over his
latter days.

Pius the Fourth was of a mild disposition, but
lie was not powerful enough to overrule the inqui-
sitors. A house beyond the Tiber was appropriated
to them, to which cells were added for criminals, or
those who were accounted such. This was called
" the Lutheran prison," and it was said to be built
on the site of the ancient Circus of Nero, in which
so many Christians were delivered to the wild
beasts.

appendix. 295

The persecution raged with redoubled fury
under Pius the Fifth : especially at Bologna,
where " persons of all ranks were indiscriminately
subjected to the same imprisonment, tortures, and
death. In Rome, some were every day burnt,
hanged, or beheaded ; all the prisons were filled,
and they were obliged to seek new ones." Think
of the constancy of these confessors ! Rome had no
need to go to Japan for martyrs. If she should
hereafter have a Protestant martyrology, many of
her own sons and daughters may be enrolled in it.
" We know not what becomes of people here," wrote
Muretus to De Thou ; "I am terrified every morn-
ing when I rise, lest I should be told that such and
such a one is no more : and if it should be so, we
should not dare to say a word."

And thus the Italian Reformation was crushed
out ! But its motto is "Resurgam ! "

296 Appendix.

II.

"The 'Alfabeto Christiano' is a book unknown
even to bibliographers for the last three centuries.
It had its origin in an actual conversation between
Juan de Yaldes, twin brother to the Latin secretary
of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and Giulia
Gonzaga, Duchess of Trajetto and Countess of
Fondi, at Xaples, about the close of 1535, or the
beginning of the following year. At her request it
was immediately afterwards written down by him in
Spanish, to promote her instruction and refresh her
memory. It now essentially conveys to us the
spirit and substance of the conversation in the
precise form and manner in which it took place
between them." — Introduction hy Benjamin B.
Wiffen, Esq., to his translation of the " Alfabeto
Christiano."

" It was printed at a time when for a few years
the press of Venice was comparatively free; and
when, taking advantage of this libertv, then existing

Appendix. 297

nowhere else in Italy, it multiplied the tracts of the
Reformation by thousands. When the friends of
Valdes were afterwards persecuted at Naples, and
his name condemned by the authority of Rome,
implicating by connection with him, one of the most
distinguished members of the noble family of the
Gonzagas, — all parties, friends equally with oppo-
nents, would of course be concerned to observe
silence on the subject ; while all the friends of the
family would be urged alike by religious sentiment
and by family considerations to destroy silently and
irrecoverably every copy of a book that appeared to
cast, by its association with her name, the shadow
of its principles upon those who were allied to her."
—Ibid.

The passage describing the manner in which a
stray copy fell into his hands, and the circumstances
under which he perused it, is one of the pleasautest
in Mr. "Wiffen's Introduction. McCrie quotes a
passage from Fontaine, who tells us that " on taking
down an old house at Urbino, iu 1723, the workmen

298 Appendix.

disinterred a copy of Bruccioli's ' Paraphrase of St.
Paul's Epistles,' with some books of Ochino, Valdes,
and others of the same kind, which had remained
in concealment for more than a century and a half."

III.
" Carnesecchi was secretary to Clement the
Seventh, and afterwards prothonotary to the Apos-
tolic See. One of his preferments was an abbey
at Naples. . . . After the death of Clement, he
retired from the Ptoman court to Naples, where he
became intimate with Juan de Valdes. He was in
that city in December, 1540, when Valdes died;
and if he did not himself receive his last confession,
which is very probable, he at least knew what it
was, for his commendation of it formed part of the
accusation against him on his trial in 1567, before
the Inquisition at Rome; and after the death of
Valdes he succeeded to the confidence of Giulia
Gonzaga. This correspondence brought her also
under the suspicion of the Inquisition on two

Appendix. 299

occasions; once in 1545, and again, a short time
before her death, in 15 06." — Witfens Introd., dc.

IV.

" Few were the years of the life of Valdes after
the conversation of the ' Alfabeto Christiano,' yet
during four, or at the most, five of them, he pre-
sented to Giulia his translation from the Greek of
the Gospel according to Matthew, of the Psalms
translated from the Hebrew, of the Epistle to the
Romans, from the Greek, with a commentary ;
nor could she be unacquainted with his ' Considera-
tions ' and other writings, while they were yet in
manuscript." — Ibid.

V.

" Ippolito's translation of the second book of the
iEneid was published at Rome, in 1538, 4to., and
in Venice, 1540. The latter is entitled, ' I sei
primi libri del Eneide de Vergilio, &c. II secondo
di Vergilio de Hipolito de Medici Cardinale, a la

Appendix,

Signora Giulia Gonzaga, AJDXXXX.' It contains
twenty-three leaves.'7 — Ibid.

The lengthy title of Ireneo AfYo's work, which a
friend transcribed for me at the British Museum,
is : — " Memorie di tre Principesse della famigha
Gonzaga ; offerte a sua ecc : il Signor Conte Stefano
Sanvitale Parmigiano, gentiluomo di camera con
esercito ed essente delle reali guardie del corpo di
S. A. Pu, in occasione delle sue felicissiine nozze
con sua eccel : la Signora Principessa Donna Luigia
Gonzaga Mantovana. Parma, IT ST. 4 to."

The title is not more wordy than the memoir
itself, though a short one.

THE END.

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, VTHITETRIAR3.

This day is Published, in fcp. Svo., neatly bound,

THE XEST HUNTERS;

OR, ADVENTURES IX THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO.
By WILLIAM DALTON, Esq.

WITH I LLUSTRATIONS.

CONTENTS OF CHAPTERS.

CHATTER

I. An Important Letter.
II. A Great Calamity.

III. Our Uncle's Last Will and

aent

IV. The Robbery and Abduc-

tion of Marie.
V We Run Away and take Ser-
vice with Xest Hunters.
VI. We set out on our V
VII. TheOld Chief. The "Strong
One," the "Weak One,"
the " Handsome One."
VIII. We descend into the Xest
Caves.
IX. Mv Adventures in the Xest
Caves.
X. If recognise the Xest Rob-
bers.
XI. A Search for a Mare's

XII. We " Bite the Biters," but
are Overhauled by a
Dutch Cruiser.

XIII. We Sell our Nests, arc

taken Prisoners, but cap-
ture our Captors.

XIV. History of our Captain :

his Hatred of the
Dutch.
XV. Adventures with a Big
Snake and a Man-eater.

CHAPTER

XVI. We pick up a Chinese
Btoiy-Teller, who sends
us to Sleep.
XVII. We are Hoodwinked by
the Chinese, wlm Robs
us of our All .
XVIII. Wherein a Chief proves his
Invulnerability by kill-
in g Himself.
XIX. We visit the Capital of
Blilling and witness
■ -Burning.
XX. We return to the Coast
and hear of an Old
Enemy.
XXI. The Wen-necked Hunch-
back and his Revelation
to Pral>u.
XXII. We join a Tiger Hunt, but
narrowly escape being
Poisoned by a Chief.
A Fight, a Great PeriL and
a Timely R-.
XXIV. We land at Mojopahit and
are imprisoned as Rebels.
XXV. Through Woods and Wilds
XXVI We hunt Tigers and dis-
cover some Old Acquaint-
ances.
XXVII. And Last, containing a
Tolerably Happy Ending.

XXIII.

Shortly,

ARTHUR MERTON.

A STORY FOR THE YOUNG.
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AUTHOR OF "KAOm; OR, THE LAST DAYS OF JERUSALEM. *'

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